
Qass. 
Book. 



M 



1870 1880 



NEW SWEDEN 



DECENNIAL 



J 



CELEBRATION 



DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 



OF THE 



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J U L Y 23, 1 880, 





PUBLISHED UNDER THK DIRECTION OF 

ANDREW WIREN, NILS OLSSON, AND N. P. CLASE, 

Committee on PuBLICATIO^^ 

1881. 



B. THUESTOISr & CO., PRINTERS, PORTLAND, ME. 






NEW SWEDEN DECENNIAL 



1870 JULY 23 1880 



Friday, July 23, 1880, was a notable day in the history 
of New Sweden. It was the tenth anniversary of the 
founding of the Swedish settlement in the woods of Maine, 
and the Swedes had long been making preparations to 
commemorate the event with fitting ceremonies. 

The day dawned gloomily. A dull rain fell from a 
leaden sky. But the rain soon ceased, and at an early 
hour people began to gather together in the great central 
clearing of New Sweden, where stand the capitol, the 
church, the store, and the parsonage. The first comers 
were Swedes, but their American and Canadian friends 
soon came flocking in from the surrounding country. The 
main road into the town soon became crowded with an 
almost continuous line of carriages. To New Sweden 
everybody was going, and in every sort of vehicle. There 
were wagons and hay-racks, coaches and carts, drags and 
buck-boards. There were Swedish teams from the colony, 
French vehicles from the upper St. John, Bluenose turn- 
outs from Canada, and Yankee wagons from everywhere 



4 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

around. Mingled with these were elegant carriages, 
drawn by noble spans of horses, for which Aroostook 
county is justly celebrated. 

For hours the steady stream of vehicles poured along 
the road from Caribou to New Sweden. A Miss Brown, 
of Woodland, sat at the window of her house, and with 
slate in hand kept tally of the passers-by. She counted 
492 carriages containing 1448 persons, that drove past her 
house that morning into New Sweden. Add to these the 
number of foot travelers, those who came by other roads 
or through the woods, the Swedes from outside the colony 
who came in the day before, and the 787 members of the 
colony itself, and it is certain that over 3000 persons were 
present and took part in the decennial celebration at New 
Sweden. 

Four hundred invited guests had started the day before 
by rail from the older sections of the state outside of 
Aroostook county. Their goodly numbers overtaxed the 
capacity of the New Brunswick Railway. They were 
kept up all night in crowded cars, while the good peo23le 
of Caribou sat up all night waiting to receive them. At 
last in the gray dawn, the train of four hundred belated 
travelers was hauled in sections into the depot at Caribou, 
and sulky and grim, in a drizzling rain they drove to their 
lodgings. 

At ten o'clock, however, after a nap and a cup of coffee, 
these visitors forgot the fatigues of the night, and were 
joining the long procession driving into the Swedish 
woods. 

By this time New Sweden, from the capitol to the 
church, was literally full of people in gala-day attire, 
among whom the Swedish girls, with their national head- 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 5 

dress of a deeply fringed silk kerchief, formed a striking 
and picturesque feature. 

A triumphal arch of evergreen had been erected across 
the road in front of the church. On each side of the arch 
was a flagstaff, likewise decorated with evergreen; while 
to the right was drawn up the company of Swedish cadets 
under command of Captain Lars Nylander. Everybody 
was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the guests of the day. 

Among the honored guests who joined in the celebra- 
tion, and were now driving toward New Sweden, may be 
mentioned 

Hon. Daniel F. Davis, Governor of Maine. 
Hon. RoscoE L. Bowers, 
Hon. FiiEDERiCK Robie, 
Hon. Joseph T. Hinkley, 
Hon. William Wilson, )> 

Hon. James G, Pendleton, 
Hon. Lewis Barker, 
Hon. Samuel N. Campbell, 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, United States Senator. 
Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, Ex-governor of Maine. 
Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Member of Congress. 
Hon. Llewellyn Powers, Ex-member of Congress. 
Col. James M. Stone, Ex-speaker Maine House of Reps. 
Hon. Sumner J. Chadbourne, Secretary of State. 
Hon. C. A. Packard, State Land Agent. 
Hon. William Senter, Mayor of Portland. 
Hon. W. W. Thomas, Senior, Ex-mayor of Portland. 
Gen. Henry G. Thomas, United States Army. 
George A. Thomas, Esq., of Portland. 
Prof. F. A. Robinson, of Kents Hill. 
Albert A. Burleigh, Esq., of Houlton. 



The entire 

Executive Council. 



6 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Jacob Harbison, Esq., of Caribou. 

Hon. L. R. King, of Caribou. 

Hon. John S. Arnold, of Caribou. 

W. A. Vaughan, Esq., of Caribou. 

JuDAH D. Teague, Esq., of Caribou. 

Hon. Jesse Drew, of Fort Fairfield. 

Rev. Daniel Stickney, of Presque Isle. 

Rev. G. M. Parks, of Presque Isle. 
The press was represented by 

Hon. Isaac H. 'Bailey, of the Shoe and Leather Re- 
porter, New York. 

Stanley T. Pullen, Esq., of the Portland Press. 

Capt. C. A. BouTELLE, and Howard Owen, Esq., of 
the Bangor Whig and Courier. 

Dr. W. P. Lapham, of the Maine Farmer. 

C. CouiLLiARD and Winfield S. Nevins, Esqs., of the 
Boston Herald. 

J. SwETT RoWE, Esq., of the Boston Journal. 

Benjamin D. Hell, Esq., of the Boston Traveller. 

Albert C. Wiggin, Esq., of the Bangor Commercial. 

E. L. Warren, Esq., of the Kennebec Journal. 

S. W. Mathews, Esq., of the Aroostook Republican. 
Nearly all these gentlemen were accompanied by 

ladies. 

At last the carriage of Hon. W. W. Thomas jr., the 

founder of the colony, followed by the carriages of the 

Governor, the Council, and other distinguished guests, 

drives across the boundary line from Woodland into New 

Sweden ; a salute is fired by the Swedish cadets, the stars 

and stripes and the yellow cross of Sweden sail proudly 

into position at the top of the flagstaffs on either side of 

the evergreen arch, and the sweet tones of the church 



FOUKDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 7 

bell float out for the first time over the woods and clear- 
ings of New Sweden. 

At tlie triumphal arch the guests of the day are re- 
ceived by the Swedish cadets and escorted under the arch 
and down the road to the capitol. 

That was a strange sight in the woods of Maine. First 
came the band, playing a martial air, next the Swedisli 
cadets marching like veterans, then the carriage of the 
founder of the colony, followed by a long line of carriages 
containing the Governor, Council, and distinguished visit- 
ors. Three thousand people, Swedes, Americans, Cana- 
dians, and French, filled the great central clearing and 
cheered on the procession, the flags of Sweden and Amer- 
ica floated loyally side by side, the church bell rang a merry 
peal, all around stood the primeval forest in silent, ma- 
jestic lines, while the sun, breaking forth from between 
the clouds of morning, shone down upon us like a happy 
augury, and gave tone and color to the scene. 

The procession halts in front of the capitol. The cadets 
draw themselves up on either side of the way, present 
arms, and shout 

'■''Lefve Konsul Tliomas^'' 

(Long live Consul Thomas), 
'-''Lefve Koloniens VaJgoraren,''' 

(Long live the benefactor of the colony), 
^'Lefve Koloniens Grrundlaggaren^^ 

(Long live the founder of the colony), 
'•'■Lefve Governoren of Maine,'''' 

(Long live the Governor of Maine). 
A cheer goes up from the great throng of Swedes 
crowding around. Then Nils Olsson, one of the first col- 
onists and the first lay preacher of New Sweden, steps out 



8 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

into the open space between the two lines of cadets and 
welcomes the gnests of the day in a short speech in Swed- 
ish, of wliich the following is a translation : 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME OF NILS OLSSON. 

In behalf of the Swedish people, men, women, and chil- 
dren, I bid 3'ou, Consnl Thomas, and all the gentlemen 
and ladies in your company, a cordial welcome to New 
Sweden, upon this tenth anniversary of the day when you 
led us into these woods. We Swedes feel grateful and 
not a little surprised that we are deemed worthy of a visit 
from so many of the most honorable citizens of Maine. 
For this visit, and for the many acts of kindness extended 
to us Swedes — although strangers in a strange land — by 
the State of Maine and its citizens, ever since we first 
crossed your borders, we now return our heartfelt thanks. 

The guests now alight from their carriages and pass be- 
tween the files of Swedish cadets. Then Mr. Thomas 
replies to the address of welcome from the threshold of the 
capitol. • The cadets march forward, form a line directly 
in front, and present arms. The colonists crowd around 
with eager interest. Mr. Thomas spoke in Swedish. The 
substance of his remarks translated into English is as 
follows : 

RESPONSE BY HON. W. W. THOMAS JR. 

Swedish colonists^ my comrades in the ivoods of Maine^ 
my countrymen, — from my heart I thank you for this royal 
reception to your guests of to-day. I am proud of you and 
of the great work you have done in these forests. You 
little band that entered these woods with me ten years ago 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 9 

this veiy hour, and all you that have followed after, I know 
your trials, your toils, your hardships, and your privations. 
I know, too, your courage, your hope, your industry, and 
your perseverance, and to-day I see your victory. And 
not I alone, but the Governor and Council of our State, 
and many of the most distinguished citizens of Maine, are 
here to-day to see and bear witness to the great results of 
your labors. 

And you. Captain Nylander ; and you, Swedish soldiers 
on American soil, I thank you for the part you have so well 
taken in the observances of this day. In your veins flows 
the blood of the vikings. Yonder float the flags of Swe- 
den and America. Should ever foes without or foes within 
threaten this free land of ours, let the old beserker rage 
fire your hearts, and may you fight in defense of the stars 
and stripes as gallantly as the soldiers of Sweden have ever 
fought for the yellow cross of the Northland. My Swedish 
brethren, one and all, again I thank you. 

Mr. Thomas' remarks were received by the Swedes with 
loud and long-continued applause. As soon as order was 
restored, Mr. Thomas introduced Gov. Daniel F. Davis, 
who spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF HON. DANIEL F. DAVIS, GOVEENOR OP 
MAINE. 

Fellow-citizens of New Sweden^ — I assure you that it 
gives me great pleasure to visit your beautiful town, and 
to meet you all as 1 do to-day ; to see what I have long 
known about, but have never viewed with my own eyes 
before. It is an occasion of the greatest importance to 
you. For the many blessings and privileges which you 



10 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

enjoy, for your fertile farms and happy homes, you must 
thank the country and the gentleman who has just spoken 
to you in your own language. To him you owe it all. 
Now, my countrymen (for I greet you as such, and I was 
particularly impressed, as I rode along and saw the colors 
of Sweden and of the United States blending together in 
graceful harmony) it is the boast of our institutions that 
we are able to make citizens with a common reverence for 
the stars and stripes, out of all kinds of material. Over 
every foot of our territory the stars and stripes wave over 
a people with equal rights before the law. I congratulate 
you upon the success which has attended your efforts, and 
has greeted your industry and perseverance since you 
came to Maine, and also for your good behavior. I want 
to say one word more in regard to our country. We have 
our state government to which we owe our allegiance, but 
over that and grander than that we owe an allegiance to 
the great nation of which the state is only a part. I want 
to impress upon you one other point, — our law gives to 
your boy an equal chance with my own. In this land of 
liberty of ours there is resting upon every individual, 
whether of native or foreign birth, burdens commensurate 
with our liberties. See that the state and the nation 
suffer no Avrong from your hands. I wish you joy and 
happiness upon this occasion, and a prosperous future. 

Three cheers were given for Gov. Davis. The proces- 
sion then reformed, and escorted by the band and the 
Swedish cadets, countermarched to the church. 

EXERCISES IN THE SWEDISH CHURCH. 

The church was filled to overflowing. The aisles and 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 11 

every foot of standing room were crowded. The windows 
were all thrown wide open, and hundreds of people were 
accommodated with seats out of doors, on long benches of 
plank, which flanked the church on either side, while a 
still larger number stood around. The governor, council, 
speakers, and their ladies were seated in front to the right 
of the pulpit. To the left on a raised platform was placed 
the Swedish choir, led by Mrs. Gottlieb Piltz, while 
immediately below was Jones' band, of Caribou. 

At twelve o'clock the exercises in the church opened 
with the singing of a Swedish song by the choir, 

"Our land, our land, our foster-land." 

Prayer was next offered by Rev. G. M. Park, of 
Presque Isle. 

A selection was played by the band. 

Then the Swedish pastor. Rev. Andrew Wtren, said : 

I will now introduce to you the father of the children in 
the woods, the Hon. W. W. Thomas jr., of Portland. 

After the applause which greeted Mr. Thomas had sub- 
sided, he delivered the following oration : 

HISTORICAL ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS JR., 
FOUNDER OF NEW SWEDEN. 

Ten years ago New Sweden was an unbroken wilder- 
ness. 

The primeval forest covered all the land, stretching 
away over hill and dale as far as the eye could reach. No 
habitation of civilized man had ever been erected in these 
vast northern woods; through their branches the smoke 
from settler's cabin had never curled ; in their depths the 
blows of settler's axe had never resounded. Here roamed 



12 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

the moose, and prowled the bear, and here the silence of 
midnight was broken by the hooting of the arctic owl. 

To-day New Sweden is the happy home of nearly eight 
hundred industrious, contented people. 

We are now convened within its borders, not in the 
forest gloom, but in this Christian church. All around us 
are pleasant fields, where the tall grain waves in the sum- 
mer breeze. Sleek cattle and heavy-fleeced sheep graze in 
the pastures. Beyond, cut out of the solid woods, great 
clearings open to the sun on every hand. They are dotted 
with the cottages of the pioneer, and checkered into green 
and golden squares with the varying crops. School-houses 
open their doors for the children, and from the tower above 
us, the sound of the church-going bell floats over clearing 
and cottage, and echoes through the aisles of the forest. 
Here are free schools, free church, free speech, and the 
free worship of God. 

And those who have wrought this great change — the 
hardy pioneers, whose hands we have taken and into 
whose honest faces we now look — are not " to the manner 
born," but came to us from another continent, four thou- 
sand miles away over the ocean. 

Truly the story of New Sweden forms an unique chap- 
ter in the history of Maine. This story it is my purpose 
briefly and faithfully to narrate upon this day, which we, 
both Swedes and Americans, have met together to cel- 
ebrate — the decennial anniversary of the founding of New 
Sweden in the woods of Maine. 

Maine is a state of great, but largely undeveloped, re- 
sources. Our sea-coast, notched all over with harbors, 
invites the commerce of the globe ; our rivers offer- suffi- 
cient power to run the factories of the nation, while our 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 13 

quarries can supply the world with building material. 
There is also within our borders a wilderness domain, 
whereon is not a settler, larger in area than the State of 
Massachusetts, covered with a stately forest of valuable 
trees, possessing a soil of unusual depth and fertility, and 
watered by plentiful streams. Indeed the entire Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts could be dropped into our north- 
ern forests without hitting a human being, and no soul of 
us would be aware we had received so important an addi- 
tion to our state. On this vast and fertile territor}^ Maine 
for many years has offered everybody a farm, virtually as 
a gift. 

And yet, notwithstanding all these advantages, Maine 
decreased in population from 1860 to 1870; and that, too, 
when every other state in the Republic, with the single 
exception of New Hampshire, increased in numbers. 

In that decade, the United States gained twenty-five 
per cent, or over seven and a half millions, while Maine 
fell off from 628,279 to 626,915 in population, making a net 
loss of 1,364 in the number of her citizens. 

Yet what element of empire do we lack? Fertile lands, 
exhaustless quarries, noble rivers, colossal water power, 
and harbors countless and unrivaled, all are ours. We 
lack labor to utilize the resources lying waste around us. 
Men are the wealth of a state. We lack men. 

The necessity of Maine was the cause of New Sweden. 

In locality, Maine is an Eastern state ; in her needs she 
is like a state of the West. Yet while the Western states 
were advancing in population hundreds of thousands, 
Maine had paused and gone backward. Was this a mo- 
mentary halt in our advance, or was it the beginning of 
our decline ? This was a question of grave import. States, 
like men, cannot stand still, they must grow or decay. 



14 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Immigration was evidently our remedy. Immigration 
was building up the West, and had long been one of the 
chief sources of wealth to our country. Since the war, 
there had arrived in the United States more than three 
hundred thousand immigrants a year. What a grand 
army of labor, three hundred thousand strong — a regiment 
a day — which every year sailed over the ocean to our 
shores, to help subdue our forests, reclaim our wild lands, 
open our mines, build our cities and railroads, and in every 
way develop the great resources of our own broad land. 

It is estimated that these immigrants are worth one 
thousand dollars each to our country as a producing force. 
Three hundred millions of dollars will thus represent the 
yearly tribute paid by the monarchies of the Old World to 
the republic of the New. And this valuable stream of 
immigration was all flowing past Maine to enrich the broad 
fields of the great West. 

Could any portion of this immigration be secured for 
Maine? and, if so, which nationality could furnish immi- 
grants best adapted to the climate and soil of our state ? 

It is an interesting fact, that with few exceptions, as the 
French in Canada, immigrants from Europe take up the 
same relative position in America they occupied in the 
continent of their birth. In fact there seem to be certain 
fixed isothermal lines between whose parallels the immi- 
grants from the Old World are guided to their homes in 
the New. Thus the Germans from the center of Europe 
settle in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and our other middle states ; 
the French and Spanish from southern Europe and the 
shores of the Mediterranean, make their homes in Louis- 
iana, Florida, and all along the Gulf of Mexico ; while the 
Scandinavians from the wooded north, fell the forest and 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 15 

build tlieir log-cabins in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan, 
Minnesota — in our northern range of states — the Pine-tree 
state forms one of this northern, wooded range ; Scandi- 
navian immigration flows naturally to us. 

Would they make good citizens, these men of the 
North? Yes, no one doubted that. A tall, stout, hardy 
race are these Northmen ; inured to hardship, patient of 
labor, economical, religious, honest. 

The matter found its first official utterance in 1861, in 
the message of Gov. Washburn, wherein the general sub- 
ject of Scandinavian immigration was briefly presented to 
the attention of the leoislature. This recommendation was 
followed by no immediate result. In 1864 an attempt was 
made by a company of Maine gentlemen to procure labor- 
ers from Sweden, but the undertaking proved a complete 
failure. The company shipped several hundred Swedes 
from Sweden, but not one of them ever arrived in Maine. 
The idea then slumbered until Gen. Chamberlain was 
called to the gubernatorial chair. He eloquently and per- 
sistently pressed the subject upon the attention of the 
legislature and the people. Interest in the question grew 
apace. It was a fruitful theme of discussion both in and 
out of legislative halls. 

The desirability of Scandinavian immigration was at last 
quite generally conceded. But could we obtain it ? and 
how? These were unsolved problems, and the doubters 
were many. For at that time a Swede was about as rarely 
to be met with in Maine as a Chinese. 

The question was discussed by the Legislature of 1869, 
and on the twelfth of March of that year, a resolve was 
passed entitled : "A resolve designed to promote the set- 
tlement of the public and other lands in the state." It 



16 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

provided for the appointment of three commissioners, a 
part of whose duty was "to ascertain what measures, if 
any, shoukl be adopted by the state to induce settlements 
upon its unpeopled townships." The persons appointed 
on this commission were Hon. Parker P. Burleigh, your 
historian, and Hon. William Small. 

This commission made a tour of observation and inquiry 
through Aroostook county in October of the same year, 
and presented a report to the legislature of 1870. 

This report contains the first definite, practical plan for 
securing Scandinavian immigration to Maine. The plan 
was this : 

1 Send a commissioner of the state of Maine to Sweden. 

2 Let him there recruit a colony of young Swedish 
farmers — picked men — with their wives and children. No 
one, however, was to be taken unless he could pay his own 
passage and that of his family to Maine. 

3 A Swedish pastor should accompany the colon}-, that 
religion might lend her powerful aid in binding the colony 
together. 

4 Let the commissioner lead the colony in a bod}-, all 
together, at one time, and aboard one ship, from Sweden 
to America. Thus would they be made acquainted with 
one another. Thus also would they have a leader to fol- 
low and be prevented from going astray. 

5 Let the commissioner take the Swedes into our 
northern forests, locate them on Township No. 15, Range 
3, west of the east line of the state, give every head of a 
family one hundred acres of woodland for a farm, and do 
whatever else might be necessary to root this Swedish col- 
ony firmly in the soil of Maine. 

Then all state aid was to cease, for it was confidently 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 17 

expected when once the colony was fast rooted in our soil, 
it would thrive and grow of itself, and throughout the 
future draw to Maine, our fair portion of the Swedish im- 
migration to the United States. 

In founding the Swedish colony of Maine this plan thus 
presented has been carried out in every detail to the letter. 

This enterprise, though presented with confidence, was 
presented only as an experiment. The legislature enter- 
tained it only as such. The merits of the experiment, and 
its probable advantages to Maine, were placed before the 
House of Representatives by Col. James M. Stone, chair- 
man of the committee on immigration, in an eloquent and 
exhaustive speech. Something ought certainly to be done. 
Nothing better was offered. So on March 23, 1870, an act 
was passed authorizing the experiment to be tried. 

The act established a Board of Immigration, consisting 
of the governor, land agent, and secretary of state. On 
March 25, two days after the passage of the act, this board 
was pleased to appoint me commissioner of immigration. 
The fate of the Swedish experiment was thus placed in my 
hands. 

Having successfully arranged all preliminary matters, I 
sailed from the United States April 30, and landed at 
Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 16th of May. 

The problem now to be solved was this ; — could a colon}' 
of intelligent, industrious Swedish farmers be induced to 
pay their own passage, and that of their wives and children, 
to a comparatively unknown state, four thousand miles 
away ? I believed the problem admitted of a satisfactory 
solution, and went to work accordingly. . 

A head office was at once established at Gothenbursf. 
Notices, advertisements, and circulars, describing our state 



18 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

and the proposed immigration, were scattered broadcast 
over- the country. Agents were employed to canvass the 
northern provinces, and as soon as the ball was fairly in 
motion, I left the office at Gothenburg in charge of Capt. 
G. W. Schroder, and traveled extensively in the interior 
of Sweden, distributing documents, and talking with the 
people in the villages, at their homes, by the roadside, and 
wherever or whenever I met them. 

A previous residence of three years in Sweden had ren- 
dered me familiar with the language, customs, and tradi- 
tions of the Swedes. Without this knowledge I could 
have done nothing. With it, I was enabled to preach a 
crusade to Maine. But the crusade was a peaceful one, its 
weapons were those of husbandry, and its object to recover 
the fertile lands of our state from the dominion of the 
forest. 

To induce the right class of people to pay their way to 
settle among us, seemed indeed the most difficult part of 
the whole immigration enterprise. I therefore deemed it 
expedient to take this point for granted; and in all adver- 
tisements, conversations, and addresses, to dwell rather on 
the fact that, as only a limited number of families could be 
taken, none would be accepted unless they brought with 
them the highest testimonials as to character and profi- 
ciency in their callings. 

The problem which was thus taken for granted soon 
began to solve itself. Recruits for Maine began to ap- 
pear. All bore certificates of character under the hand 
and seal of the pastor of their district, and all who had 
worked for others brought recommendations from their 
employers. These credentials, however, were not consid- 
ered infallible, some applicants were refused in spite of 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 19 

them, and no one was accepted unless it appeared clear 
that he would make a good and thrifty citizen of our good 
state of Maine. In this way a little colony of picked men, 
with their wives and children, was quickly gathered 
together. The details of the movement, the arguments 
used, the objections met, the multitude of questions about 
our state asked and answered, would fill a volume. I was 
repeatedly asked if Maine was one of the United States. 
One inquirer wished to know if Maine lay alongside Texas, 
while another seeker after truth wrote, asking if there were 
to be found in Maine any wild horses or crocodiles. This 
ignorance is not to be wondered at, for what had Maine 
ever done prior to 1870 to make herself known in Sweden. 

Neither was the colony recruited without opposition. 
Capital and privilege always strive to prevent the exodus 
of labor; and sometimes are reckless as to the means they 
use. It is sufficient, however, to state that all opposition 
was successfully silenced or avoided. 

On June 23, the colonists, who had been recruited from 
nearly every province of Sweden, were assembled at Goth- 
enburg; and on the evening of that day, — midsummer's 
eve, a Swedish festival, — I invited them and their friends 
to a collation at the Baptist hall in that city. Over two 
hundred persons were present, and after coffee and cake 
had been served, according to Swedish custom, addresses 
were made by S. A. Hedlund, Esq., member of the Swedish 
parliament, Capt. G. W. Schroder, the leader of the Bap- 
tist movement in Sweden, and your historian. The exer- 
cises were concluded by a prayer from pastor Trouvd. At 
this meeting the colonists were brought together and made 
acquainted, their purpose quickened and invigorated, and 
from that hour the bonds of common interest and destiny 



20 DECENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

have bound all the mdividuals hito a community. Such a 
knowledge of Maine and its resources was also imparted 
by the speakers, that the very friends who before had 
sought to persuade the colonists not to desert their father- 
land, exclaimed, "Ah, if I could only go too ! " 

In August, 1637, the Swedish ship of war " Key of Cal- 
mar," accompanied by a smaller vessel, the " Bird Griffin," 
set sail from Gothenburg for America, with a Swedish 
colony on board, which founded the first New Sweden in 
the New World, on the banks of the Delaware. Two hun- 
dred and thirty-three years later, at noon of Saturday, June 
25, and just forty days after the landing of your historian 
in Sweden, he sailed from the same Gothenburg in the 
steamship "Orlando," in company with the first Swedish 
colonists of our state, who now left home and country and 
faced the perils of a voyage of four thousand miles, and 
the hardships and toils of making a new home in the wil- 
derness of a strange land, without the scratch of a pen by 
way of contract or obligation, but with simple faith in the 
honor and hospitality of Maine. 

The colony was composed of twenty-two men, eleven 
women, and eighteen children ; in all fifty-one souls. All 
the men were farmers ; in addition, some were skilled in 
trades and professions; there being among them a lay 
pastor, a .civil engineer, a blacksmith, two carpenters, a 
basket-maker, a wheelwright, a baker, a tailor, and a 
wooden-shoe maker. The women were neat and industri- 
ous, tidy housewives, and diligent workers at the spinning- 
wheel and loom. 

All were tall and stalwart, with blue eyes, light hair, 
and cheerful, honest faces ; there was not a physical defect 
or blemish among them, and it was not without some feel- 



FOUNDING or NEW SWEDEN. 21 

ings of state pride that I looked upon tliem as the}' were 
mustered on the deck of the "Orlando," and anticipated 
what great results might flow from this little beginning 
for the good of Maine. 

A heavy northwest gale, during the prevalence of which 
the immigrants were compelled to keep below, while the 
hatches were battened down over their heads, rendered 
our passage over the North Sea very disagreeable, and so 
retarded our progress that we did not reach the port of 
Hull till Monday evening, June 27. The next day we 
crossed England by rail to Liverpool. Here was an un- 
avoidable delay of three days. On Saturday, July 2, we 
sailed in the good steamship "City of Antwerp," of the 
Inman line, for America. 

The passage over the ocean was a pleasant one, and on 
Wednesday, July 13, we landed at Halifax. The good 
people of this city fought shy of us. Swedish immigration 
was as novel in Nova Scotia as in Maine. No hotel or 
boarding-hoase would receive us, and our colony was 
forced to pass its first night on this continent in a large 
vacant warehouse kindly placed at our disposal by the 
Messrs. Seaton, the agents of the Inman steamships. Next 
day we continued our journey across the peninsula of Nova 
Scotia and over the bay of Fundy to the city of St. John. 

July 15 we ascended the St. John river to Frederieton 
by steamer. Here steam navigation ceased on account of 
the lowness of the water, but two river tow-boats were 
chartered, the colony and their baggage placed on board, 
and at five o'clock on the morning of Saturday, July 16, 
our colony was en route again. Each boat was towed up 
the St. John river by two horses. The boats frequently 
grounded, and the progress up stream was slow and toil- 



22 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

some. The weather was fine, and the colouists caught fish 
from the river, and picked berries along the banks. 

Near Florenceville the first misfortune befell us. Here 
on Tuesday, July 19, died Hilraa C. Clas^, infant daughter 
of Capt. Nicholas P. Clase, aged nine months. Her little 
body was properly embalmed, placed in a quickly con- 
structed coffin, and brought on with the colony. " We 
cannot leave our little one by the way," said the sorrow- 
stricken parents, " we will carry her through to our new 
home." 

On the afternoon of Thursday, July 21, the tow-boats 
reached Tobique Landing. Six days had been spent in 
towing up from Fredericton. The journey is now accom- 
plished by railroaH in as many hours. All along our route 
from Halifax to Tobique the inhabitants came out very 
generally to see the new comers, and there was an uni- 
versal expression of regret, that so fine a body of immi- 
grants should pass through the Provinces, instead of 
settling there. At Tobique the colonists debarked, and 
were met by Hon. Parker P. Burleigh, land agent and 
member of the board of immigration. We obtained lodg- 
ings for the colony on the hay in Mr. Tibbit's barn, and 
Mr. Burleigh and I, driving round from house to house, 
buying a loaf of bread here, a loaf there, a cheese in an- 
other place, and milk wherever it could be procured, got 
together supplies sufiicient for supper and breakfast. 

Friday morning, July 22, teams were provided for the 
Swedes and their baggage, and at eight o'clock the Swedish 
immigrant train started for Maine and the United States. 
The teams were furnished by and under the charge of Mr. 
Joseph Fisher of Fort Fairfield. Mr. Burleigh and your 
historian drove ahead in a wagon, then came a covered 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDflN. 23 

carriage, drawn by four horses. This contained the wom- 
en and children. Next were two three-horse teams with 
the men, followed by a couple of two-horse teams contain- 
ing the ba2fCTao:e. So we wound over the hills and at ten 
o'clock reached the iron post that marks the boundary 
between the dominions of the queen, and the United 
States. 

Beneath us lay the broad valley of the Aroostook. The 
river glistened in the sun, and the white houses of Fort 
Fairfield shone brightly among the green fields along the 
river bank. As we crossed the line and entered the 
United States, the American flag was unfurled from the 
foremost carriage, and we were greeted with a salute of 
cannon from the village of Fort Fairfield. Mr. Burleigh 
stepped from the wagon and in an appropriate speech 
welcomed the colony to Aroostook Count}', Maine, and 
the United States. I translated the speech and the train 
moved on. Cheers, waving of handkerchiefs, and every 
demonstration of enthusiasm greeted us on our way. 

Shortly after crossing the line an incident occurred 
which showed of what stuff the Swedes were made. In 
ascending a hill the horses attached to one of the immi- 
grant wagons became balky, backed the wagon into the 
ditch, and upset it, tipping out the load of baggage. The 
Swedes instantly sprang from the carriages in which they 
were riding, unhitched the horses, righted the wagon, and 
in scarcely more time than it takes to tell it, reloaded their 
ton and a half of baggage, and then ran the wagon by hand 
to the top of the hill. This was the first act of the Swedes 
in Maine. 

At noon we reached the town hall at Fort Fairfield. 
A gun announced our arrival. Here a halt was made. A 



24 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION". 

multitude of people received us. The Swedes got out of 
the wagons and clustered together by themselves, a little 
shy in the presence of so many strangers. The assembly 
was called to order by A. C. Gary, Esq., and a meeting 
organized by the choice of Hon. Isaac Hacker as chairman. 
Mr. Hacker after some pertinent remarks introduced Judge 
William Small, who welcomed the Swedish immigrants in 
a judicious, elaborate, and eloquent address. He was fol- 
lowed by the Rev. Daniel Stickney of Presque Isle in a 
stirring and telling speech. The remarks of these gentle- 
men were then given to the Swedes in their own tongue 
by your historian, after which at the request of the Swedes 
I expressed their gratitude at the unexpected and generous 
hospitality of the citizens of Aroostook. The Swedes were 
then invited to a sumptuous collation in the town hall. 
The tables groaned with good things. There were salmon, 
green peas, baked beans, pies, pudding, cake, raspberries, 
coffee, and all in profusion. 

At two o'clock the Swedes resumed their journey, glad- 
dened by the welcome and strengthened by the repast so 
generously given them by the good people of Fort Fairfield. 
The procession passed up the fertile valley of the Aroos- 
took — the stars and stripes still waved "at the fore." 
Many citizens followed in wagons. Along the route every 
one turned out to get a good look at the new comers. A 
Swedish youth of twenty struck up an acquaintance with 
an American young man of about the same age. It mat- 
tered not that the Yankee did not speak a word of Swe- 
dish, nor the Swede a word of English, they chattered 
away at each other, made signs, nodded and laughed as 
heartily as though they understood it all. Then they 
picked leaves, decorated each other with leafy garlands, 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 25 

and putting their arms around one another marched along 
at the head of the procession, singing away in the greatest 
good fellowship, as good friends as though they had known 
each other for a lifetime, and perfectly regardless of the 
little fact that neither of them could speak a word the 
other could understand. Youth and fraternity Avere to 
them a common language, and overleaped the confusion of 
tongues. 

As the immigrant train halted on a hill top, I pointed 
out the distant ridges of this township rising against the 
sky. '•''Bet utlofvade Landet" — "The promised land" — 
shout the Swedes, and a cheer goes along the line. 

Late in the afternoon we reached the bridge over the 
Aroostook river. A salute of cannon announced our ap- 
proach. Here we were met by a concourse of five hun- 
dred people with a fine brass band of sixteen pieces, and 
escorted into the picturesque village of Caribou. Hon. 
John S. Arnold delivered an address of welcome, and the 
citizens invited us to a bountiful supper in Arnold's hall, 
where also the settlers passed the night. At this supper 
one of the good ladies of Caribou happened to wait upon 
our worthy land agent, and getting from him a reply in a 
language she understood, was overjoyed and exclaimed, 
" Why, you speak very good English for a Swede ! " 

Next morning the Swedish immigrant train was early in 
motion accompanied by some one hundred and fifty cit- 
izens of the vicinity. One farmer along the route put out 
tubs of cold water for our refreshment. I thanked him for 
this. "Oh, never mind," he replied, "all I wanted was to 
stop the Swedes long enough to get a good look at them." 
We soon passed beyond the last clearing of the American 
pioneer and entered the deep woods. Our long line of 



26 DECENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

wagons slowly wound its way among the stumps of the 
newly cut wood road, and penetrated a forest which now 
for the first time was opened for the abode of man. 

At twelve o'clock, noon, of Saturday, July 23, 1870, just 
four months from the passage of the act authorizing this 
enterprise, and four weeks from the departure of the im- 
migrants from Sweden, the first Swedish colony of our 
state arrived at its new home in the wilds of Maine. 
We called the spot New Sweden, a name at once com- 
memorative of the past and auspicious of the future. Here 
in behalf of the state of Maine I bade a welcome and God 
speed to these far travelers, our future citizens, and here 
at the southwest corner of these cross roads, within a 
stone's throw of where we now sit, under a camp of bark 
and by the side of a rill of pure spring water, Swedes and 
Americans broke bread together, and the colonists ate 
their first meal on this township in the shadow of the forest 
primeval. 

I believe there is no better town in Maine for agricul- 
tural purposes than New Sweden. On every hand the 
land rolls up into gentle hard-wood ridges, covered with a 
stately growth of maple, birch, beech, and ash. In every 
valley between these ridges flows a brook, and along its 
banks grow the spruce, fir, and cedar. The soil is a rich, 
light loam, overlying a hard layer of clay, which in turn 
rests upon a ledge of rotten slate, with perpendicular rift. 
The ledge seldom crops out, and the land is remarkably 
free from stones. 

New Sweden lies in latitude 47° north, about the same 
latitude as the city of Quebec. The boundaries of this 
township were run by J. Norris, Esq., in 1859. It was 
then designated as Township No. 15, Range 3, west of the 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 27 

east line of the state, which name it bore for twenty-one 
years, until the advent of the Swedes. Subsequently the 
township was set apart by the state for settlement, and in 
1861 the best part of the town was run out into lots for 
settlers. These lots contained about 160 acres each. The 
state surveying party consisted of Hon. B. F. Cutter, of 
Standish, surveyor, A. P. Files, Esq., of. Gorham, chain- 
man, Hon. L. C. Flint, of Abbot, explorer, and three 
assistants. The work was commenced the last of August, 
1861, and finished October 22 of the same year. This 
surveying part}* found a cedar tree marked by J. Norris in 
1859 as the southeast corner of the town, and the lotting 
of the town was begun at a cedar post standing two links 
southwest of this cedar tree, which post was marked " T. 
No. 15, R. 3, Lot 144, B. F. Cutter, 1861, ^ " (the latter 
character being Cutter's private mark). 

Thus in 1861 the state of Maine offered to everybody 
his choice of the lots in this township, each lot containing 
160 acres. The offer was made under our settling laws, 
which did not require the payment of a dollar, only the 
performance of a certain amount of road labor and other 
settling duties, which made the lot virtually a gift from 
the state to the settler. This offer of the lots in this town 
virtually for nothing remained open to everybody for nine 
years. Yet not a single lot was taken up. For nine long 
years no one was found willing to accept a lot of land in 
this town as a gift, provided he was required to make his 
home upon it. Can any citizen of Maine complain that a 
colony from over the ocean took possession of the very 
land, which he for nine years had refused to accept as a 
gift? 



28 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

And this is not all. Not only was New Sweden without 
a settler on the morning of July 23, 1870, but several of 
the lots in the northern portion of Woodland plantation, 
lymg nearest to New Sweden, which lots had, years before, 
been taken up by settlers, and on which clearings had been 
made, houses built, and cro|)s raised, were now deserted by 
their owners, the houses with windows and doors boarded 
up, and the clearings commencing to grow up again to 
forest. Such was the condition of the last clearings the 
Swedish colony passed through on its way into thet e 
woods. These clearings are now settled by Swedes and 
smile with abundant harvests. 

The American pioneer, who abandoned the clearing 
nearest New Sweden is happily with us to-day, and joins 
in these festivities with wondering eyes. Within an hour 
Mr. George F. Turner has told me of his attempt to settle 
in these woods. He came from Augusta in the spring of 
1861, and took up lot No. 7, in Woodland. Here he lived 
for seven years, built a house and barn, and cleared thirty- 
five acres of land. But there were no roads. If his wife 
wished to visit the village he was forced to haul her 
through the woods on a sled even in summer. No new 
settlers came in. His nearest neighbors, Dominicus Har- 
mon and Frank Record, left their places and moved out tcT 
Caribou. Still he held on for two years more alone in the 
woods. At last in the fall of 1868 he abandoned the clear- 
ing where he had toiled for seven long years, and moved 
out to civilization. 

"I left," says Mr. Turner, "because in the judgment of 
every one, there was no prospect for the settlement of this 
region. The settlers around me were abandoning their 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 



29 



clearincrs. Every one said I was a fool to stay, and I at 
last thought so myself, and left. Little did I expect to 
live to see this day." 

The tide of settlement was ebbing away from these 
woods, when a wave from across the Atlantic turned the 
ebb to flood. It has been flood tide ever since. 

The Board of Immigration of 1870 very prudently re- 
frained from making any preparation for the proposed 
colony until it knew the result of my mission to Sweden. 
When, however, it appeared from my letters that this mis- 
sion was a success, and that a Swedish colony would surely 
come to Maine, the Board at once set about making suit- 
able preparations for the reception of the Swedes. This 
dutv devolved upon Hon. Parker P. Burleigh of the 
Board, and it is fortunate the work fell to such tried and 
able hands. In the latter part of June, 1870, Mr. Burleigh 
proceeded to Aroostook county. Here he instituted a re- 
lotting of this township, reducing the size of the lots from 
160 acres, which for nine years had been offered to Amer- 
icans, with no takers, to lots of 100 acres each for the 
Swedes. The surveying party was under the charge ot 
that old and experienced state surveyor, the Hon. Noah 
Barker Mr. Burleigh contracted with Hon. L. R. Ivmg 
and Hon. John S. Arnold, of Caribou, to fell five acres of 
forest on each of the twenty-five lots. He also cut a road 
into the township and commenced building twenty-five log- 
houses. In addition, Mr. Burleigh bought and forwarded 
to the township necessary supplies and tools for the colony, 
and in many ways rendered services indispensable to the 
success of the enterprise. 

The Swedes had arrived much earlier than Mr. Burleigh 
anticipated. Only six of the log-houses had been budt, 



30 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

and these were but partly finished, only two of them hav- 
ing glass in the windows. On our arrival, the supplies 
and the commissioner of immigration were stowed in one 
house, and the Swedes and their baggage packed in the 
other five. So the colony passed its first night in New 
Sweden. 

The next day was the Sabbath. The first religious serv- 
ice on the township was a sad one — the funeral of Hilma 
C. Clase. The services were held at the bark camp at 
the corner, and were conducted by Rev. James Withee, 
of Caribou, an American Methodist. All the Swedes, and 
many families from Caribou attended the funeral of this 
little Swedish girl. We buried her north of the capitol on 
the public lot, in a spot we were forced to mark out as a 
cemetery on the very first day of the occupancy of this 
town. So peacefully slept in the wild green wood the only 
one who had perished by the way. 

I had anticipated some difficulty in assigning homes to 
the settlers. Some farms were undoubtedly better than 
others. To draw lots for them seemed to be the only fair 
way of distribution ; yet in so doing, friends from the same 
province, who had arranged to help each other in their 
work, might be separated by several miles. Every diffi- 
culty was finally avoided, by dividing the settlers into 
little groups of four friends each, and the farms into clus- 
ters of four, and letting each group draw a cluster, which 
was afterward distributed by lot among the members of 
the group. The division of farms was thus left entirel}^ to 
chance, and yet friends and neighbors were kept together. 

The drawing took place Monday afternoon, July 25. 
With but two exceptions, every one was satisfied, and 
these two were immediately made happy by exchanging 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 31 

with each other. When this exchange was effected, every 
Swede was convinced that just the right lot had fallen to 
him, and was enabled to find something or other about his 
possessions which in his eye made it superior to all others. 
So surely does ownership beget contentment. 

After the homesteads were thus distributed, Mr. Bur- 
leigh, Mr. Barker, and myself, took the Swedes to a hillside 
chopping, northeast of the cross roads, and showed them 
the vast woodland wilderness of Maine stretching away 
unbroken to the horizon, and awaiting the ax and plow of 
the settler. " Here is room enough for all our friends in old 
Sweden," said the Swedes. 

Tuesday morning, July 26, the Swedes commenced the 
great Avork of converting a forest into a home, and that 
work has gone happily on, without haste and without rest, 
to this day. 

Much remained to be done by the state. The Swedes, 
too, must be supplied with food till they could harvest 
their first crop. To put them in the way of earning their 
living by their labor was a natural suggestion. I therefore 
at once set the Swedes at work felling trees, cutting out 
roads, and building houses, allowing them one dollar a day 
for their labor, payable in provisions, tools, etc. The prices 
of these necessaries were determined by adding to the first 
cost the expense of transportation, plus ten per cent for 
breakage and leakage. 

Capt. N. P. Clase, a Swede who spoke our language, 
and could keep accounts in single entry in English, was 
then placed in charge of the storehouse. He opened an 
account with every settler, charging each with all goods 
received from the store. Every Swedish working party 
was placed under a foreman, who kept in a book furnished 



32 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

him the time of each man. These time-books were handed 
in once a week to Capt. Chase, the store-keeper, and the 
men credited with their work at the rate of one dollar a 
day. The Swedes thus did the work which the state would 
otherwise have been compelled to hire other laborers to do, 
and were paid in the very provisions which otherwise the 
state would have been compelled to give them. By this 
arrangement, also, all jealousy was avoided with regard to 
the distribution of rations ; and in their consumption the 
rigid Swedish economy was always exercised, which could 
hardly have been the case if food had fallen to them like 
manna, without measure or price. 

All through summer and fall there was busy work in 
this wilderness. The primeval American forest rang from 
morn till eve with the blows of the Swedish axe. The. 
prattle of Swedish children and the song of Swedish 
mothers made unwonted music in the wilds of Maine. 
One cloudless day succeeded another. The heats of sum- 
mer were tempered by the woodland shade in which we 
labored. New clearings opened out, and new log-houses 
were rolled up on every hand. Odd bits of board, and the 
happily twisted branches of trees were quickly converted 
into needed articles of furniture. Rustic bedsteads, tables, 
chairs, and the omnipresent cradle, made their appearance 
in every house; and Swedish industry and ingenuity soon 
transformed every log-cabin into a home. 

One hundred acres of forest were granted each settler ; 
a chopping of five acres had been made on each lot. In 
nearly every instance, the trees were felled on the contig- 
uous corners of four lots, and a square chopping of twenty 
acres made around the point where four lots met, five acres 
of which belonged to each of the four farms. The largest 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 33 

possible amount of light and air was thus let into each 
lot, and the settlers were better enabled to help one an- 
other in clearing. As the choppings had not yet been 
burnt over, the houses were built outside them, and being 
placed in couples on the opposite sides of the road, every 
household had a near neighbor. Nearly every habitation 
was also within easy distance of a spring of living water. 

The houses built by the state in New Sweden were all of 
uniform pattern. They were designed by our able and 
efficient land agent, Hon. P. P. Burleigh, and erected 
under the immediate superintendence of Jacob Hardison 
and Judah D. Teague, Esqs. They were built of peeled 
logs; were 18x26 feet on the ground, one and a half stories 
high, seven feet between floors, and had two logs above 
the second floor beams, which, with a square pitch roof, 
gave ample room for chambers. The roofs were covered 
with long shaved shingles of cedar, made by hand on the 
township. The space on the ground floor was divided off, 
by partitions of unplaned boards, into one general front 
room 16x18 feet, one bedroom 10 feet square, and pantry 
adjoining, 8x10 feet. On this floor were four windows; 
one was also placed in the front gable end above. In 
the general room of each house was a second-size Hampden 
cooking stove, with a funnel running out through an iron 
plate in the roof. On the whole, these log-cabins in the 
woods were convenient and comfortable structures; they 
presented a pleasing appearance from without, and within 
were full of contentment and industry. 

It was of course too late for a crop. Yet I wished to 
give the Swedes an ocular demonstration that something 
eatable would grow on this land. There was a four acre 
3 



34 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

chopping on the public lot ; this had been partially burnt 
over by an accidental spark from the camp fire at the cor- 
ner. On this chopping seven Swedes v^ere set at work on 
July 26 junking and hand-piling the prostrate trees. Mr. 
Burleigh with axe and hands assisted in rolling up the first 
pile. Good progress was made, and the next day, Wednes- 
day, July 27, we set fire to the piles and sent a young lad. 
Master Haines Hardison, on horseback, out to the Ameri- 
can settlements in quest of English turnip seed and teeth 
for a harrow. 

On July 28 we explored with the surveying party an old 
tote road running from the Turner place (one of the aban- 
doned American farms in Woodland) out to Philbrick's 
corner, on the road to Caribou. We found the tote road 
cut off three-quarters of a mile of the distance to the vil- 
lage, saved a hard hill and a long pole bridge, and gave a 
good level route. We at once put the tote road in repair 
and used it exclusively. The present turnpike to Caribou 
follows substantially the route of this road from the Tur- 
ner place, now occupied by Jonas Bodin, across Caribou 
stream to Philbrick's. 

Friday, July 29, we sowed two acres on the public lot 
to English turnips. This was the first land cleared and 
the first crop sowed in New Sweden. The land was hand- 
piled, burnt, cleared, and sowed Avithin six days after the 
arrival of the colony. The turnips were soon up, and 
grew luxuriantly, and in November we secured a large 
crop of fair size, many of the turnips being fifteen inches 
ill circumference. I am well aware that the turnip is re- 
garded as a very cheap vegetable, but to us who were 
obliged to haul in everything eaten by man or beast eight 
miles over rough roads, this crop was of great assistance. 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 35 

Furthermore it gave the Swedes a tangible proof of the 
fertility of the soil. 

On this day the first letters were received ; two from 
old Sweden, directed to Oscar Lindberg. Four basket 
bottomed chairs for headquarters were hauled in on top of 
a load of goods — the first chairs in New Sweden, and Har- 
vey Collins, the teamster, brought in word that a Swedish 
immigrant was at Caribou on his way in. 

July 30, Saturday, Anders Westergren, a Swede thirty- 
nine years of age, came in and joined the colony. He 
sailed as seaman in a vessel from Philadelphia to Bangor, 
there he took up a paper containing notice of New Sweden, 
and immediately came through to us. He was the first 
immigrant after the founding of the colony. A stalwart 
man and skilled in the use of the broad-ax he rendered 
valuable aid in building hewed timber houses. , 

On this day Mr. Burleigh left us, after a week's efficient 
help. The fame of the colony was spreading. I received 
a letter of inquiry from seven Swedes in Bloomington, 
Illinois. 

On July 31, the second Sabbath, Nils Olsson, the Swe- 
dish lay preacher, held public religious services in the 
Swedish language at the corner camp. 

Tuesday, August 2, the immigrants wrote a joint letter to 
Sweden, delaring that the State of Maine had kept its faith 
with them in every particular; that the land was fertile, 
the climate pleasant, the people friendly, and advising 
their countrymen emigrating to America to come to the 
New Sweden in Maine. This letter was published in full 
in all the leading journals throughout Sweden. 

The only animals taken into the woods by the colony 
were two kittens, picked up by Swedish children on our 



36 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

drive in from T()l)ique. On Wednesday, August 3, a cock 
and three hens were brought in to Capt. Clas^. These 
were the first domestic fowl on the township. They soon 
picked up an acquaintance with two wild squirrels, who 
became so tame that they ate meal out of the same dish 
with the fowl. 

Friday, August 12, the second immigrant arrived in the 
colony. He was a native American, a good sized boy baby, 
born to Korno, wife of Nils Persson, the first child born in 
New Sweden. The youngster is alive and well to-day. He 
rejoices in the name of William Widgery Thomas Persson, 
and is happy in contemplation of the constitutional fact 
that he is eligible to the office of President of the United 
States. 

On Friday, August 19, Anders Malmqvist arrived from 
Sweden via Quebec and Portland. He was a farmer and 
student, twenty-two years of age, and the first immigrant 
to us direct from the old country. 

Sunday afternoon, August 21, Jons Persson was united 
in marriage to Hannah Persdotter by your historian. The 
marriage ceremony was conducted in the Swedish language, 
but according to American forms. In the evening was a 
wedding dinner at the Perssons. All the spoons were of 
solid silver. This was the first wedding in New Sweden. 

Thus within one month from the arrival of the colony, 
it experienced the three great events in the life of man — 
birth, marriage, death. 

Between August 10 and 20 nearly all the choppings 
were fired. On some, good burns were obtained, and 
nothing but the trunks and larger branches of the trees 
left unconsumed on the ground ; the fire merely flashed 
over others, leaving behind the whole tangled mass of 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 37 

branches, trunks, and twigs to fret the settler. From this 
time forward till snow fell, every Swede that could be 
spared from the public works was busily engaged from 
sunrise to sunset with axe and brand on his clearing, 
"junking," piling, and burning the logs — clearing the land 
for a crop. New Sweden became a land-mark for twenty 
miles around. From her hills arose "a pillar of cloud by 
day" and "a pillar of fire by night." 

By September 15 large patches of land were successfully 
burnt off and cleared, and the Swedes commenced sowing 
an acre or half-acre each -with winter wheat or rye. Six- 
teen acres in all were sowed with rye and four with wheat. 

Meanwhile the colony steadily increased. Now and 
then a Swedish immigrant dropped in, took up a lot, re- 
ceived an axe and went to work. September 14 a detach- 
ment of twelve arrived, and October 31 twenty more 
followed, direct from Sweden. There were two more 
births, and on November 5 your historian saddled his 
horse, rode through the woods and stumps to the West 
Chopping, and officiated at the second marriage, uniting 
in the bonds of matrimony Herr Anders Frederick Johans- 
son to Jungfru Ofelia Albertina Leonora Amelia Ericsson. 

The spirit of colonization possessed even the fowl. Al- 
though at an untimely season of the year, one of Capt. 
Clase's hens stole a nest under a fallen tree in the woods, 
and on September 24, came back proudly leading eleven 
chickens. Game was plenty. Your historian caught 
hundreds of trout in the lakes beyond the northwest cor- 
ner of the township, and shot scores of partridges while 
riding through the woods from clearing to clearing. This 
game was divided among the Swedes and made an agree- 
able diversion from the salt-pork diet of our camp life. 



38 DECENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

Every Sabbath, divine service was held by Nils Olsson, 
the Swedish lay minister, and a Sunday-school was soon 
started, which is still in successful operation. 

By the wise forethought of Hon. Noah Barker, the survey- 
or of the township, a lot of fifty acres was reserved for public 
uses at the cross roads in the center of the settlement. 
Here, on the 20th of September, we commenced digging 
the cellar for a public building on a commanding slope of 
land at the cross roads. We began hewing out the frame 
and shaving shingles for the roof the same day. On Fri- 
day. October 7, we raised the frame. Work was pushed 
rapidly forward, and on Friday, November 4, four weeks 
from the raising, the house was finished with the exception 
of lathing and plastering, and the vane was placed in po- 
sition on top of the tower 65 feet from the ground. 

From the first, this structure has been called the " Cap- 
itol " by the Swedes. It is 30x45 feet on the ground ; has 
a cellar walled up with hewed cedar 7 1-2 feet in the clear, 
is 20 feet stud, and divided into two stories each 10 feet 
high ; in addition to which the upjDer story or hall gains 
five feet extra out of the roof. The first floor contains a 
storeroom 30 feet square, and two offices 15 feet square 
each. The second story is a hall 30x45 feet on the floor, 
10 feet stud on the sides, arching up to 15 feet in the clear 
in the center. 

This building stands on state land and is the property 
of the state of Maine. It was built in great part by 
Swedish labor in payment for food. In the large room be- 
low were stowed provisions and tools for the colony. The 
offices became the headquarters of the commissioner of im- 
migration, and the hall has been used for ten years as a 
church, school-house, and general rallying place for the 



rOIJNDING OF NEW SWEDEN". 39 

colony. In the spring, too, when the immigrants flocked 
in, it served as a " Castle Garden," where the Swedish 
families slept, cooked and ate under a roof while they 
were selecting their lots and erecting a shelter of their 
own. The building was indispensable. It has been the 
heart of the colony. It at once gave character and stabil- 
ity to the settlement, encouraged every Swede in his labors, 
and has been of daily need and use. 

The dwelling-houses erected by the state were built of 
round logs piled one on the other, with the spaces between 
open to wind and weather. On the eighteenth of October 
there raged a fierce storm of wind, sleet and rain. The wind 
whistled through the open log-houses, and all night long we 
could hear the crash of falling trees blown down by the gale. 
In the morning I found myself barricaded by a tall spruce 
that had fallen across my door-way, and my nearest neigh- 
bor arrived to tell me there were eight trees down across 
the road between his house and mine. Two good chop- 
pers soon cut out tlie fallen trees from the roads ; but the 
storm warned us that winter was coming. So the Swedes 
ceased for a time clearing their land, and went to 
work fitting up their houses for winter. They first split 
out plank from the nearest spruce trees, and taking up 
the floor nailed a tight planked ceiling underneath the 
lower floor beams. The spaces between the beams were 
then compactly filled with dry earth and the floor-boards 
planed and re-placed. An upper ceiling of matched boards 
was now put on overhead, and the room made perfectly 
tight above and below. The walls of round logs were 
then hewed down inside and out, the interstices first 
" chinked up " with moss and then filled in with matched 
strips of cedar. The walls were thus made as even and 



40 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

perpendicular as those of a timber house, and every build- 
ing completely defended against the cold and blasts of 
winter. 

Early in November, I secured places for the winter, 
among the farmers and lumbermen of the vicinity, for all 
the Swedes who wished to work out ; thirty were thus 
supplied with labor at from ten to twenty dollars a month, 
including board and lodging. Supplies were hauled in for 
those families who were to pass the winter in the woods, 
and they were made as comfortable as possible. 

On November 13 was held the first meeting at the cap- 
itol, and here the commissioner distributed to the colonists 
the certificates of their lots. They received them with 
eager eyes and greedy hands. 

The state of Maine extended a helping hand to this 
infant colony and guarded it with fostering care. But in 
so doing the state only helped those who helped them- 
selves. The Swedes did not come among us as paupers. 
The passage of the colony of the first year from Sweden 
to Maine cost over four thousand dollars, every dollar of 
which ivas paid hy the immigrants themselves. They also 
carried into New Sweden over three thousand dollars in 
cash, and six tons of baggage. 

Let this one fact be distinctly understood. The Swedish 
immigrants to Maine from first to last, from 1870 till to-day, 
have all paid their own passage to Maine. The state has 
never paid a dollar, directly or indirectly, for the passage 
of any Swede to Maine. 

At the close of 1870, in reviewing the work already 
accomplished, it was found that every Swede that started 
from Scandinavia with your historian, or was engaged by 
him to follow after, had arrived in Maine and was settled 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 41 

in New Sweden. No settler had left to make hiui a home 
elsewhere, but on the other hand our mimigrants had 
already bought, paid for, and sent home to their friends 
across the water, five tickets from Sweden to Maine. 

So healthy was the climate of our northern woods, that 
for the first year there was not a day's sickness of man, 
woman, or child, in New Sweden. The results of this en- 
terprise to our state, which were thus achieved in 1870, 
the year of its inception, were briefly summed up in an 
official report as follows: 

RESULTS IN 1870. 

"A colony of one hundred and fourteen Swedes — fifty- 
eight men, twenty women, and thirty-six children — have 
paid their own passage from Sweden and settled on the 
wild lands of Maine. 

"Seven miles of road have been cut through the forest; 
one hundred and eighty acres of woods felled ; one hun- 
dred acres hand-piled, burnt off and cleared ready for a 
crop, and twenty acres sowed to winter wheat and rye. 
Twenty-six dwelling-houses and one public building have 
been built. 

" A knowledge of Maine, its resources and advantages, 
has been scattered broadcast over Sweden ; a portion of 
the tide of Swedish immigration turned upon our state, 
and a practical beginning made toward settling our wild 
lands and peopling our domain with the most hardy, hon- 
est and industrious of immigrants." 

The winter of 1870-71 was safely and comfortably pass- 
ed by the Swedes in these woods. They were accustomed 
to cold weather and deep snow. Their fires crackled 



42 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

brightly and the festivities of Christmas time were observ- 
ed as joyously in the Maine woods as in Old Sweden. 

In the meantime, active and efficient measures were 
taken to increase the stream of immigration thus happily 
started. A circular was printed in Old Sweden describing 
the voyage of the first colonists, their generous and honor- 
able welcome at the American border, the attractions, 
healthfulness and fertility of their new homes, the loca- 
tion, extent and productiveness of the settling lands of 
Maine, the advantages our state offered to settlers, inter- 
esting letters from the Swedish colonists already on our 
soil, and every other fact and suggestion which seemed ap- 
propriate or advantageous. This circular was issued early 
in December, 1870 ; a month in advance of the circulars 
of any other state or association. Five thousand copies 
were distributed, and the information they contained read 
and discussed at thousands of Swedish firesides during the 
most opportune time of all the year — The Christmas holi- 
days. 

Capt. G. W. Schroder was appointed agent in Old, and 
Capt. N P. Clas6 in New Sweden. Large editions of cir- 
culars were struck off and distributed in the old country 
in quick succession ; two columns of the "Amerika," a 
Aveekly emigrant's paper, were bought for six months and 
filled every week with new matter relating to Maine and 
her Swedish colony; advertisements were also inserted in 
all the principal newspapers taken by the agricultural and 
other working classes, and a brisk correspondence carried 
on with hundreds intending to emigrate to Maine. 

A special agent was employed to travel and distribute 
information in the most northern provinces of Sweden, 
their population being deemed best fitted for our northern 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 



43 



state ; and another agent, Mr. Carl Johan Ek, one of our 
first colonists, was sent back from New Sweden to the old, 
well equipped with maps, plans, specimens of Aroostook 
wheat, rye, corn and potatoes, also maple sugar made by 
the Swedes in New Sweden ; for many in the old country 
had written " if one could only return to us, and with his 
own lips tell us what you narrate on paper, we would be- 
lieve." This last agent was sent out without expense to 
the state, he charging nothing for his services, and the In- 
man Steamship Line generously furnishing him with a free 
passage out and back. A condensed circular was printed 
in Swedish at Portland, placed in the hands of the pilots 
of that harbor, and by them distributed on board the 
trans-Atlantic steamers, while yet miles away from land. 

Seed thus well and widely sown was soon followed by a 
harvest. With the first opening of navigation, Swedish 
innnio-rants beg-an to arrive in New Sweden ; first, hi little 
squads, then in companies of twenty, thirty and forty, till 
the immigration of the year culminated in the last week 
of May, when one hundred Swedes arrived via Houlton 
and Presque Isle, followed within five days by two hun- 
dred and sixty more by the St. John river. 

Provisions and tools for the colony and its expected ac- 
cessions, were shipped in March direct to Fredericton, New 
Brunswick, and thence with the first opening of naviga- 
tion up the river St. John to Tobique landing. From this 
latter place tlie goods were hauled into New Sweden, a 
distance of but twenty-five miles. Seed, consisting chief- 
ly of wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, beans and potatoes, 
was early purchased in the neighborhood of the colony 
and hauled in on the snow. A span of young, powerful 
draught horses was ])0ught in the early spring to help on 



44 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the work. Tliey were employed in harrowing in the crops, 
grubbing out and plowing the roads, hauling logs and tim- 
ber, until November, when they were sold for $425, the 
exact sum paid for them in the spring. 

A stable, thirty by forty feet, was erected on the public 
lot, one hundred feet in the rear of the capitol ; the capi- 
tol itself painted, the first floor, comprising the store-house 
and offices, lathed, plastered, finished and furnished, and 
the hall above lathed and provided with benches and a 
pulpit. The stable was erected and the capitol completed 
before the snow was off. This work was almost exclusive- 
ly done by Swedes, at the rate of one dollar a day, in pay- 
ment of supplies already furnished them by the state. 

The snow lingered late. Weeks after it had disappear- 
ed in the nearest villages, it still covered our new clearings 
in the woods. As soon as the black burnt ground showed 
itself in considerable patches, we commenced putting in 
wheat, sowing it partly on the melting snow. The first 
wheat was sowed May 12, rye followed, then came oats 
and barley. The state horses harrowed in the grain. 
Then men, women and children were busy from morning 
till night hacking in potatoes among the stumps ; and last 
of all, each Swede cleared still a little piece more of land 
and put in turnips. 

Saturday, May 14, Jacob Hardison and I rode into New 
Sweden on horseback, through a storm of sleet and rain, 
with nineteen young apple-trees lashed on our backs. 
With these we set out the first orchard in the town on the 
public lot, just west of the capitol. The trees flourished, 
and for some years have borne fruit. 

In the spring of 1871, one hundred and sixty-five acres 
of land were cleared and put into a crop, including the 



rOUNDIXG OF NEW SWEDEN. 45 

one hundred and twenty-five acres on which the trees were 
felled the year before by the state. 

The song birds found us out. The year before the for- 
est was voiceless. This spring, robins, sparrows and chick- 
adees flew into our clearings, built their nests among us, 
and enlivened the woods with their songs. The birds evi- 
dently approved of colonization. 

All this while the immigrants with their ponderous 
chests of baggage were pouring in. They filled the hall 
of the capitol, the stable, and one squad of fifty, from 
Jemptland camped under a shelter of boards at the corner. 
Albert A. Burleigh Esq., took the place of Mr. Barker 
as surveyor. Mr. Burleigh, with an able corps of assis- 
tants arrived at New Sweden as soon as it was practicable 
to commence surveying in the woods, and pushed on his 
part of the work with vigor and ability throughout the 
season. Roads were first laid out in all directions from 
the capitol, then lots laid o& to face them. Straight lines 
were not deemed essential to these ways, an easy grade 
was everywhere maintained, and hills and swamps avoid- 
ed. Working parties of newly arrived immigrants, each 
in command of an English speaking Swede, were detailed 
to follow the surveyors and cut out the roads. Thus ave- 
nues were opened up in all directions into the wilderness. 
Bands of immigrants eagerly seeking their farms followed 
the choppers, and lots were taken up as fast as they were 
made accessible. Some enterprising Swedes did not wait 
for the working parties, but secured choice lots by ranging 
the woods in advance; the principal of "first come first 
served " having been adopted in the distribution of these 

prizes of land. 

Thus the stream of immigration that poured into the 



46 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

capitol, was continuallj^ disappearing in small rills through- 
out the forest. A party of one hundred crowding our ac- 
commodations on Monday, would vanish before Saturday 
night. A walk along any wood road soon revealed them ; 
the blows of the axe and the crash of falling trees led to 
the men, and the smoke curling from a shelter of poles 
and bark near by, to the women and children. 

Our main road to the outside world for three miles from 
the capitol was simply a passage way cut through the 
woods a year ago, to let in the first colony. The heavv 
immigrant wagons and supply teams had since then rapid- 
ly worn away the earth ; and protruding stumps and deep- 
ening ruts rendered the road almost impassable, yet not a 
day's labor could be spared to it, till the crops were all in. 
June 26, however, a force of fifteen men and four horses 
were put upon this important highway. We commenced 
work at the edge of the center, chopping about a stone's 
throw south of the capitol, and until October, whatever 
hands could be spared from their own clearings were kept 
at work on this road. The entire three miles were grub- 
bed out full width of thirty feet through a heavy growth 
of standing trees ; two miles of this turnpiked in as thor- 
ough a manner as any county road in the state, and a sub- 
stantial bridge of hewn cedar thrown across the east 
branch of Caribou stream. The road is three-quarters of 
a mile shorter than the old one by which the first colony 
entered New Sweden, curves around, instead of over the 
hills, and maintains an easy grade throughout. It was 
built under the immediate supervision of Jacob Hardison 
Esq., than whom no man in Aroostook is better acquainted 
with everything that pertains to frontier life in the woods 
of Maine, and who in one capacity or another has assisted 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 47 

the Swedish colony from its foundation. In settling New 
Sweden, my right hand man was always Jake Hardison. 
It does me good to look into his honest face to-day. 

Meanwhile, branch roads were being cut through the 
woods by smaller parties of Avorkmen. One road was 
made west four miles through Woodland into Perham, an- 
other east toward Lyndon, a third northeast four and one- 
quarter miles to the Little Madawaska river, a fourth sev- 
en and one-half miles to the northwest corner of New 
Sweden, beside still other shorter connecting roads. 

Every working party, Avhether on branch roads, main 
road, public buildings, or other public works, was in charge 
of its own special foreman. Each foreman called the rcll 
of his crew every e/ening, and entered the time of each 
man in a book provided for the purpose. These time books 
were handed in once a week to the state store-keeper, and 
each workman credited with one dollar for every day's 
work, payable in the provisions and tools he was receiving 
from the state. 

Thus the money appropriated by our state, in aid of the 
Swedish colony, accomplished a two-fold good. It first 
supplied the Swedes with food and tools, enabling them to 
live until they harvested their first crop. Second, It was 
worked out to its full value by the Swedes, on the roads 
and other public works, which are a permanent public ben- 
efit and worth to the state all they cost. State aid to the 
Swedes was thus a temporary loan, which they repaid in 
full, the state gaining hundreds of new citizens by the tran- 
saction. 

June 6, Anders Herlin died, the first death in New 
Sweden. June 20, Jacob Larsson, a newly arrived immi- 
grant, was killed in his chopping by a falling tree. 



48 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Fricla}- evening, June 23, the young people observed 
" Midsommars a/ton:' They erected a May pole at the 
center, decorated it with garlands, festoons of flowers, and 
green leaves. From the top of the pole floated the Amer- 
ican and Swedish flags. They sung ring songs, played 
ring games, and danced around the May pole to Swedish 
music, till far into the night. 

In June, arrived an important addition to the colony, 
the Rev. Andrew Wiren, a regularly ordained minister of 
the Lutheran church. His ministrations have continued to 
this day, and long may they continue in the future. He has 
ever been not only a pastor, but the "guide, counselor and 
friend " of his little flock, whose love and confidence he 
has always possessed. 

On Sunday, June 25, Pastor Wiren held the first Luth- 
eran service in the hall of the Capitol. This was the first 
anniversary of our sailing from Old Sweden, and the op- 
portunity was improved by the commissioner to speak words 
of praise and encouragement. 

All summer and fall new choppings opened out on every 
hand ; the old clearings were rapidly enlarged ; shelters of 
poles and bark gave way to comfortable timber houses ; 
barns were built near the growing grain, and everywhere 
trees were falling and buildings rising throughout the set- 
tlement. 

So many people flocking into the woods soon created a 
demand for various trades and crafts. A variety store was 
opened in August by a Swede, in a commodious timber 
building near the center. A blacksmith, a shoemaker, a 
tinman, and a tailor, set up shops near by, and were over- 
run with business. A saw-mill was commenced at a good 
water power on Beardsley brook, four miles from the cap- 



POTJNDIlSrG OF I^EW SWEDEN. 49 

itol, and on December first, was nearly completed. The 
foundations for a grist-mill were also laid. 

Quite a speculation in real estate arose. Several farms 
changed hands at high figures, and one lot of only one 
acre was sold for $50 cash. It was the corner lot next 
south of the capitol, and was sold to build a store on. 
This store has now been altered into a dwelling-house for 
Pastor Wiren. 

The crops grew rapidly. Wheat averaged five and rye 
over six feet in height. One stalk of rye, which I meas- 
ured myself, was seven feet and five inches tall. A man 
stepping into any of our winter rye fields in August, dis- 
appeared as completely from view as though he were lost 
in the depths of the forest. Many heads of wheat and rye 
were over eight inches in length. Harvest time came ear- 
ly. Winter rye was ripe and cut by the middle of August ; 
wheat, barley and oats early in September. 

Crops were raised by thirty families. These arrived the 
year before. The new comers could only clear the land of 
its trees this first season. Of the thirty families, seven- 
teen had built barns in which they stored their grain. 
The crops of the others were securely stacked in the field, 
and though the autumn was rainy, the harvest was unin- 
jured. 

As soon as the grain was dry a machine was obtained to 
thresh it. Three thousand bushels of grain were threshed 
out, of which twelve hundred were wheat, one thousand 
barley, and the remainder principally rye and oats. Wheat 
averaged twenty, and yielded up to twenty-five, and rye 
averaged thirty-five and yielded up to forty-two bushels 
to the acre. The season was late and wet, and much of 
the wheat was nipped by the rust. In an ordinary year a 
4 



50 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

maximum yield of forty bushels of wheat to the acre has 
been attained. 

An unusually heavy frost the middle of September, 
which prevailed throughout New England, killed the 
potato tops and stopped all further growth of the potatoes, 
diminishing the yield one-third. Three hundred bushels 
to the acre of those earliest planted was nevertheless ob- 
tained, and five thousand bushels of potatoes secured, be- 
sides several hundred bushels of beets, turnips and other 
roots. 

On September 30, all those who had harvested a crop 
were cut off from further receipt of state supplies. These 
colonists became not only self supporting, but delivered 
to the state, in part payment of their indebtedness, five 
hundred bushels of potatoes, which were sold to the later 
arrived immigrants. 

On November 15, state aid was also cut off from every 
immigrant of this year who had not wife or children with 
him. For all such, work for the winter was provided 
among the farmers, in the lumber woods, at the tanneries, 
quarries, or railroads. 

A free public school was opened in the hall of the capi- 
tol, November 13, 1871. Pastor Wiren was teacher. He 
had acquired our language during a four years' residence 
in the west. There were seventy-seven scholars. The 
chief study was the English language. To learn to read, 
write, and speak English was of more importance than all 
else. Pastor Wiren also opened an evening English school 
for adults. 

Divine service continued to be held in the public hall 
both forenoon and afternoon, every Sunday throughout 
the year; and the Swedish Sunday-school kept up its 



FOUNDIlSrG OF NEW SWEDEN. 51 

weekly meetings without the omission of a single Sunday. 
The attendance on these religious exercises was almost 
universal. 

As soon as the earth could be made to produce grass or 
fodder, the Swedes began to provide themselves with cat- 
tle, horses, sheep, and swine. 

They bought, however, no faster than they could pay. 
If a Swede could not afford a span of horses, he bought 
only one ; if he could not afford a horse, he provided him- 
self with an ox ; if an ox was beyond his purse, he got a 
steer, and if a steer was more than he could afford, he 
placed a home-made harness on his only cow, and worked 
around with her till he could do better. 

Americans driving in laughed at these nondescript 
teams, but all the while the Swedes were teaching us a 
lesson — to live within our means. 

On Thursday, September 5, Bishop Neely visited New 
Sweden and conducted religious services in the public hall. 

On Tuesday, September 26, Hon. Sidney Perham, Gov- 
ernor of Maine, and Hon. P. P. Burleigh, land agent, ac- 
companied by friends, made an official visit to the colon3^ 
The Swedes, to the number of four hundred, met at the 
capitol, and gave the official party a warm reception. The 
commissioner, in behalf of the colony, delivered an ad- 
dress of welcome, to which Governor Perham eloquently 
replied. Swedish songs were sung, speeches made, and 
every Swede shook hands with the Governor. A collation 
was then served in the store-room of the capitol, and in 
the afternoon, the roads, buildings and farms of the Swedes 
were inspected by the Governor and land agent, who ex- 
pressed themselves highly gratified with the progress of 
the colony. 



52 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

One great cause of the rapid success of this colony has 
been the active help the Swedish women have rendered 
their husbands. Ever}^ Swedish wife was indeed a help- 
mate. She not only did all the house work, but helped 
her husband in the clearings amid the blackened stumps 
and logs. Many of the Swedes cut their logs into lengths 
for piling with cross-cut saws. Whenever this was the 
case, you would see that the Swedish wife had hold of 'one 
end of the saw ; and she did her half of the work too. 

Once ridino- out of the woods, I met one of our Swedish 
women walking in with a heavy sack on her back. As she 
passed, I noticed a commotion inside the sack. 

" What have you got in there ? said I. 

"Four nice pigs," she replied. 

" Where did you get them ? " 

" Down river, two miles beyond Caribou." 

Two miles beyond Caribou was ten miles from New 
Sweden. So this good wife had walked twenty miles ; ten 
miles out and ten miles home, with four pigs on her back, 
smiling all the way, to think what nice pigs they were. 

Another wife, when her husband was sick, with her own 
hands, felled some cedar trees, sawed them up into butts, 
and rifted out and shaved these butts into shingles, one 
bunch of which she carried three miles through the woods 
on her back, to barter it at the corner store here for neces- 
saries for her husband. 

By such toil was this wilderness settled. 

This Swedish immigration enterprise advertised Maine 
throughout the union, and called public attention to our 
wild lands and new settlements. The files of the land of- 
fice show that in addition to the Swedish immigration, 
American immigration upon our wild lands increased in 
1871, more than 300 per cent. 



rOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 53 

One special instance among many may be given of the 
outside effect of New Sweden. Mr. Alba Holmes was in- 
duced to visit Aroostook county by reading a newspaper 
notice of New Sweden. He put in operation the first po- 
tato starch factory in Aroostook, at Caribou. These fac- 
tories quickly increased ; there are now twenty-two in the 
county, which consume 3,000,000 bushels of potatoes a 
year, and the manufacture of potato starch has become 
one of the leading industries of Aroostook. 

As illustrating how favorably the New Sweden of Maine, 
is regarded by the old country, from which it sprung, I 
call attention to the following admirable letter, written to 
the Governor of Maine, by S. A. Hedlund of Gothenburg, 
Sweden. Mr. Hedlund is editor of a prominent Swedish 
newspaper, a member of the Swedish parliament, and 
one of the first writers and thinkers of Sweden. 

To the Honorable Giovernor of the State of Maine : 

Sir, — You must not wonder, sir, that a Swedish patriot 
cannot regard without feelings of sadness the exodus of 
emigrants, that are going to seek a better existence in the 
great republic of North America, leaving the homes of 
their ancestors, and giving their fatherland only a smiling 
farewell. It will not surprise you, sir, that this must be a 
very melancholy sight to the mind of the Swedes, and that 
it must become yet more so on the thought that many of 
these emigrants are meeting destinies far different from 
the glowing prospects that were held forth to their hope- 
ful eyes. Not only Sweden will lose her children, but 
they will be lost to themselves in the distant new field. 

The sons and daughters of old Sweden, will they main- 
tain, among your great nation their national character ? 



54 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

Will they retain, at least, some remembrance of tlieir na- 
tive land? 

We know well, sir, that every nationality, strong as it 
may be, will be gradually amalgamated in the new, com- 
mon, all-absorbing nationality of the new world, and it 
would certainly not be of any advantage, either to Amer- 
ica or to civilization, if the different nationalities of Europe 
were to continue their individual life, with their peculiari- 
ties and enmities, on the soil of their adopted country. 
We regard it, on the contrary, as a special mission of 
America to absorb and amalgamate all these different Eu- 
ropean elements. 

But, sir, will they lose also, these American immigrants, 
the remembrance of their fatherland ? Must the Swedish 
inhabitors of your country necessarily forget the language 
and customs of their ancestors ? Will they forget the 
struggles and victories of their native land, its good times 
and hard times ? Will they forget the mother who has 
borne her children with heavy and self-denying sacrifices, 
and will they have no feelings left for her love and regret ? 

No, sir, they will not do so, and the great people of 
America will not require it. You have not received the 
children of Sweden as outcasts, who will be adopted into 
the new family only at the price of denying their father 
and mother. On the contrary, sir, you have given a spec- 
ial impulse to the Swedes, whom you have invited to col- 
onize your state, to hold their native land in honor and re- 
membrance, by giving the new colony, founded in the 
northern part of your state, the name of "New Sweden; " 
you have given them also, in Swedish books, opportunity 
for recalling their fatherland. 

Your commissioner, Mr. W. W. Thomas jr., one evening 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 55 

last Slimmer, assembled his little colony of immigrants to 
partake of a collation, where good wishes and kind words 
were exchanged. We, the remaining friends, left with 
confidence our brethren and sisters in his care ; his last 
and firm assurance was, "All that has been promised will 
be kept." 

Yes, sir, these promises have been kept ; but not only 
that, they have been far surpassed by your generosity. 
The poor immigrants, landing on your shores, have been 
received and greeted with the most friendly welcome. 
Their homes established, their future secured, they have 
not been disappointed in their hopes by the difficulties and 
grievances of the real state of things. 

The young colony will probably be the nucleus of an ex- 
tended colonization, and you will not, sir, I feel sure, find 
the hardy Swedes ungrateful and unworthy of your kind- 
ness ; they would then, surely, be unworthy of their origin. 

The colony of " New Sweden " has requested and au- 
thorized the writer of this letter to convey to you, Honor- 
able Governor of the State of Maine, the expression of 
their sentiments of deep gratitude, and you will kindly al- 
low me, sir, to add thereto, the expression of the same sen- 
timents of many other Swedes, who have followed the im- 
migrants with sympathies. 

Allow me, at the same time, to express to the people of 
Maine, who have received their new brethren with so much 
cordialty, the thanks of the colonists, who have mentioned 
more especially two gentlemen, Mr. W. W. Thomas jr., 
and Mr. P. P. Burleigh, land agent, as objects of their 
gratitude and high esteem. 

May the young colony of " New Sweden " grow and 
flourish, not only in material strength, but even in devel- 



56 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

oping their moral and intellectual faculties. And may the 
new population thus add to your state and to your great 
republic a good and healthy element of moral power from 
the old world, and, becoming imbued with the spirit of 
your free institutions, reflect that spirit on their native 
land I 

What we have lost, at present, in the old fatherland, will 
then not have been lost to humanity ; on the contrary, the 
trees have only been transplanted on a fresher soil, where 
they will thrive better and give richer and more abundant 
fruits. God bless the harvest ! God bless your land ! 

I am, sir, with the highest esteem, 

Your obedient servant, 

G. A. Hedlund, 

Chief Editor of Gothenburg Shipping and Mercantile Gazette. 
Gothenburg, March 25, 1871. 

In January, 1872, a weekly newspaper, " The North 
Star," was started at Caribou. Every issue of this paper 
contained one column, printed in the Swedish language. 
This column was edited by Mr. E. Winberg, one of our 
Swedish immigrants, and was extensively read in New 
Sweden. 

This was the first paper, or portion of a paper ever pub- 
lished in a Scandinavian language in New England, al- 
though the Scandinavians sailed along our coast, and built 
temporary settlements on our shores, five hundred years 
before Columbus discovered the islands of our continent. 

The examination of the first common school, took place 
March 15, 1872, after a session of four mouths. The 
scholars had made wonderful progress in learning our lan- 
guage. Many could speak and read English well, and 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 57 

some had made considerable advance in writing. These 
school privileges were highly prized. Some of the schol- 
ars came to school five miles through the woods, slipping 
over the snow on sJcidor — Swedish snow shoes. 

Two steam mills were erected and put in operation in 
the spring of 1872. A large quantity of shingles and 
some boards were sawed. These mills, however, were an 
unprofitable investment for their owners. 

The Swedes early became experts in manufacturing 
shaved shingles by hand. It was soon admitted by Aroos- 
took traders that the Swedish shingles were the best made 
in the county. Shopping in New Sweden was almost exclu- 
sively barter. Bunches of shaved shingles were the curren- 
cy which the Swedes carried to the stores of the American 
traders, and with which they bought their goods. 

The last mile of our main road was turnpiked in 1872, 
giving the colony a good turnpike to Caribou. Branch 
roads were improved. 

In the matter of government. New Sweden presented 
an anomaly. It was an unorganized township, occu- 
pied by foreigners, furthermore, no legal organization could 
be effected for years, for there was not an American citi- 
zen resident in the township, through whom the first step 
toward organization could be taken. The first two years 
of the colony the commissioner found time to personally 
settle all disputes between the colonists, organize the labor 
on roads and buildings, and arrange all matters of general 
concern. 

As the colony increased, it became impossible for one 
man to attend to all the details of this work. A commit- 
tee of ten was therefore instituted to assist the commis- 
sioner. Nine of this committee were elected by the colo- 



58 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

nists, the Pastor was the tenth, ex officio. Three went out 
of office every six months, and their places were filled at a 
general election. New Sweden was also divided into nine 
highway districts, and each one of this committee had 
charge of the roads in his own district. This decemvirate 
satisfactorily managed all the municipal affairs of the col- 
ony, until New Sweden was legally organized into a plan- 
tation. 

Many and strange were the experiences of life in these 
woods. 

One evening Svensson came running up to my office in 
the capitol, crying out, "My daughter is lost." 

His daughter Selma was a little girl, twelve years old, 
well known and loved in the colony. 

He had taken her with him in the morning to a new 
chopping, where he was at work, three miles into the woods 
toward the Madawaska river. At noon he had sent her to 
a woodland spring to draw water for their dinner, but slie 
did not return. Becoming alarmed, he hurried to the 
spring. There were the tracks of her feet in the moist 
earth, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. He hallooed 
and received no answer, and then searched the woods in 
vain till night-fall. 

I at once sent out a messenger on each road in the town- 
ship, warning the men to meet at the capitol next morning 
at sunrise. Over fifty came, bringing with them all the 
dogs and all the guns in the colony. We followed Svensson 
to his clearing, formed a line north and south along the 
Madawaska road, and at a signal, advanced into the woods, 
moving west. Each man was to keep in line with and in 
sight of his next neighbor. Thus the men advanced 
through the forest for hours, shouting and firing guns. 
But there came no answer. 



FOUNDING OF NEAY SWEDEN. 69 

At noon two guns were fired in qnick succession. This 
was the preconcerted signal. The girl was found. She 
was standing in the bottom of a dense cedar swamp, on all 
sides the trunks of fallen trees were piled up in inextri- 
cable confusion. How the child ever got in there was a 
mj-stery. She still held the pail, half full of water, in 
her hand. But she had clasped the bail so tightly in her 
terror, that her finger nails had cut into the palm of her 
hand, and blood was dripping from her fingers into the wa- 
ter in the pail. 

" Why, where have you been ? " joyfully asked the 
Swedes. 

" I don't know," she murmured in a broken voice. 
" What have you been doing ? " 
" I don't know." 

" Where did you pass the night ? " 

" There hasn't been any night," she cried with a wild 
glare. She was mad. The terrors of that long night 
alone in the woods had taken away her reason. She was 
taken home, tenderly nursed, and after a period of sick- 
ness, was fully restored to health of mind and body. She 
then said, that she went to the spring, filled her pail with 
water, and was just starting back through the woods, when 
suddenly she saw in the path before her, a bear and a cub. 
She turned and ran for life. When she dared to look 
around, she found the bear was not following her. She 
then tried to walk around to the clearing, where her father 
was. She kept on and on, crying for her father, till it 
grew dark, then she recollected no more. 

The government of the United States recognized this 
colony at an early day, by establishing a post-office here, 
and appointing Capt. N. P. Clas^ post-master. The road 



60 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

to Caribou was subsequently made a post route, and week- 
ly paid postal service commenced July 1, 1873. Sven S. 
Landin, one of the colonists, was mail carrier, although, 
when pressed with work on his farm, his wife not unfre- 
quently walked with the mail to Caribou and back again, 
a distance of sixteen and a half miles. 

On October 14, 1873, Ransom Norton Esq., clerk of 
courts for Aroostook county, visited the colony for the 
purpose of affording the Swedes an opportunity of taking 
the first step toward naturalization. On that day one 
hundred and thirty-three men came forward and publicly 
renounced all allegiance to the " King of Sweden and Nor- 
way, the Goths and the Vandals," and declared their in- 
tention of becoming American citizens. 

In the fall of 1873, the condition of the colou}^ was 
excellent. The little settlement of fifty had increased 
to six hundred, and outside of New Sweden there were 
as many more Swedes located in our state, drawn to 
us by our Swedish colony. The settlement of New Swe- 
den had outgrown the township of that name and spread 
over the adjoining sections of Woodland, Caribou and 
Perham. The trees on 2200 acres had been felled. 1500 
acres of this were cleared in a thorough and superior man- 
ner, of which 400 acres were laid down to grass. 

The crops had promised abundance, but an untimely 
frost that followed the great gale of August 27, pinched 
the late grain and nipped the potatoes. Still a fair crop 
was harvested. 130 houses, and nearly as many barns 
and hovels had been built. The colonists owned 22 horses, 
14 oxen, 100 cows, 40 calves, 33 sheep and 125 swine. 
. The schools were in a flourishing condition. Such an 
advance had been made in English, that most of the chil- 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 61 

clren above ten years of age, could read and write our lan- 
guage tolerably, and speak it well. An American visiting 
the colony had no need of an interpreter, for every child 
that talked at all, could speak English. 

Your historian then felt that all the conditions of the 
plan on which this experiment was made, had been fulfill- 
ed. The colony had been recruited in Sweden, transplant- 
ed to Maine, fast rooted in our soil, and made self-sustain- 
ing. The experiment was an experiment no longer. New 
Sweden was successfully founded, the stream of Swedish 
immigration was successfully started. The infant colony 
was now strong enough to go alone. 

On Sunday forenoon, October 19, 1873, the commission- 
er of immigration met the Swedes at the capitol. Nearly 
the whole colony, men, women and children were there. 
The commissioner recounted the history of the colony, 
since the first adventurous little band had met together m 
old Sweden, spoke such words of friendly counsel as the 
occasion suggested and justified, and then took leave of the 
colony he had recruited in the Old World and founded 

in the New. 

In his annual report, at the close of 1873, the commis- 
sioner recommended that all special state aid to New 
Sweden should cease. He further took pleasure in recom- 
mending that the oihce he held be abolished, since the ac- 
complishment of the undertaking rendered the ofdce no 
longer necessary ; and thus laid down the work, which for 
four years had occupied the better portion of his life and 

endeavor. • g«o 

One thousand years ago the great Scandinavian Sea- 
King Rollo sailed out from the Northland with a fleet of 
viking ships. 



62 DECENNIAL CELEBEATIOK. 

Landing on the coast of France, he subjugated one of 
her fairest provinces. Here the Northmen settled, and 
from them the province is called to this day Normandy. 

Eight hundred years later the descendants of these 
Northmen, speaking French, sailed from Normandy to 
this continent and settled Acadia. When driven from 
their homes by the British fleet, a detachment of Acadians 
came up the St. John river and settled on the interval, 
where now stands the city of Fredericton. 

Expelled from their homes a second time by the English, 
they followed up the St. John to Grand Falls. 

British ships cannot sail up these falls, said they, so 
nearly a hundred years ago they built their cottages along 
the fertile valley of the upper St. John, some twenty miles 
north of New Sweden. There to-day dwell thousands of 
Acadian French. 

Ten years ago, a little company of Swedes sailed forth 
from the same Scandinavia, whence issued RoUo and his 
vikings, and settled New Sweden. 

So these two branches of Scandinavian stock, separated 
in the ninth century, are now brought together again after 
the lapse of a thousand years, and dwell side by side in 
the woods of Maine. 

Early in March, 1876, some thirty of the first comers in 
the colony were naturalized by the Supreme Court sitting 
in Houlton, and on April 6, 1876, New Sweden was legally 
organized into a plantation. An election was held, and 
officers chosen the same day. The following were the first 
officers of the plantation of New Sweden : 
Nils Olsson, -v 

Gabriel Gabeielson, ( Assessors. 

Pehr O. Juhlen, ) 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 63 

Carl J. Toenqvist, Clerk. 
Truls Persson, Treas., Collector and Constable. 
John Boegeson, \ 

John P. Jacobsson, ( School Committee, 

Pettee Petteesson, ) 

In the spring of 1878, the foundations of this, the first 
church in the colony were laid. 

In September, 1878, the Editorial Association of Maine 
visited the colony. The brethren of the quill penetrated 
everywhere and interviewed everybody. A meeting was 
held in the hall of the capitol, and the editors, without 
distinction of party or creed, were outspoken in their 
praise of the Swedes and the work they had accomplished. 
At the September election in 1879, New Sweden cast 80 

votes. 

Our Swedish colony by no means represents the total 
Scandinavian immigration to Maine, during the last dec- 
ade. All over our state may be found Swedes who have 
been attracted to us, and are still held within our borders 
by the influence of New Sweden. For this Swedish com- 
munity, with its Swedish customs, its Swedish church and 
its Swedish pastor, is looked upon as a home by every 
Swede in Maine. 

Some of our Swedish immigrants who came to us in in- 
dependent circumstances, purchased improved farms, on 
which they are now settled, in Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, 
Limestone, Maysville and other towns. Many Swedes are 
at work in the great tanneries of Penobscot and the quar- 
ries of Piscataquis counties, in the mills and lumber woods 
of the Penobscot and the Aroostook, and on the farms of 
Cumberland and York. 

A considerable number of the young men are employed 



64 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

in the stores and workshops of Portland, Bangor, Houlton, 
Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Caribou and otlier cities and 
villages, while the young women furnish needed and valu- 
able help in our families in all sections of Maine. 

Everywhere the Swedes have proved themselves to be 
intelligent, trustworthy workers, and everywhere they are 
praised and prized by their employers. 

From the day of her founding, to this hour, New Swe- 
den has continued to grow and thrive. She has never 
taken a step backward, she has never made a halt in her 
progress. 

The colony of New Sweden soon outgrew the township 
of that name, and extended over the adjacent portions of 
the adjoining tov\^ns. The colony now occupies the whole 
of New Sweden plantation, the northerly half of Wood- 
land and a corner of both Caribou and Perham. But 
though situated on four townships, the colony is compact, 
and the territory occupied by it forms one solid block of 
about 35,000 acres in extent. 

The following statistics embrace the entire colony : 

Maine's Swedish colony to-day 

Has a population of 787 Swedes, divided as follows : 

New Sweden plantation, 517 

Woodland, .-....-- 210 

Caribou, -- 36 

Perham, 24 

Total, 787 

More than fifteenfold the little band of pilgrims that 
entered these woods ten years ago to-day. 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 65 

An increase of 1474 per cent in a single decade. Can 
tliis be equalled by any town in New England ? 

MARRIAGES, BIRTHS AND DEATHS. 

There have occurred 27 marriages, 216 births, and 65 
deaths. The births exceed the deaths in the ratio of 
3.32 to 1. This alone proves the vigor of the Swedish 
race and the healthfulness of the climate of northern 
Maine. 

CLEARINGS. 

The area of land cleared on each lot in the colony va- 
ries with the strength, skill and circumstances of the set- 
tlers, and the length of time since their arrival. The first 
colonists have of course, larger " felled pieces " on their 
lots than the later comers ; and the few, who were for- 
tunate enough to bring with them the means of hiring 
help, have made more rapid progress in clearing their 
farms of the forest, than the great majority who have been 
compelled to rely exclusively on the labor of their own 
hands. Scarcely any of the Swedes, however, have cleared 
less than 15 acres, most have cleared from 20 to 40 acres, 
some from 40 to 50, while a few are the happy owners of 
over 50 acres of cleared land. One farm in the colony, 
with a clearing of 50 acres, and good buildings thereon, 
was sold for $2000 to a newly arrived immigrant. 

The Swedes have cleared their land in a superior man- 
ner, all the old soggy logs being unearthed, smaller stumps 
uprooted, and the larger knolls levelled. In many of the 
earlier clearings, the stumps have been entirely removed, 
and the fields plowed as smoothly as in our oldest settle- 
ments. 



66 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

In the aggregate, these Swedes have cleared and put in- 
to grass or crops, 4438 acres of land, that one decade ago 
was covered with a gigantic forest. 

BUILDINGS. 

The colonists have erected the capitol, this church, 
5 school-houses, 3 mills, 163 dwelling-houses and 151 barns ; 
324 buildings in all. 

ROADS. 

They have built 11 miles of excellent turnpike road, 
and grubbed out and put in passable condition, 31i miles 
additional, making a total of 42^ miles of road built in 
the settlement. 

LIVE STOCK. 

The Swedish settlers now own 164 horses. They also 
possess 92 working oxen, 283 milch cows, and 282 other 
cattle ; in all 657 head of cattle. 

They have 309 sheep and 221 lambs ; total, 530 — and 
175 swine ; while the little flock of 4 hens brought in the 
first year has been so rapidly added to, that the Swedes 
can reckon up to-day the goodly number of 1920 poultry. 

DAIRY. 

In 1879, the dairy product of the colony amounted to 
13,604 pounds of butter and 2,000 pounds of cheese ; or in 
other words, 1 ton of cheese and nearly 7 tons of butter. 

WOOL. 

The colonists clipped 309 fleeces, which weighed 1,393 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 67 

pounds. This was largely carded, si^un and woven at their 
own homes, and for their own use. * 



EGGS. 

The egg product of 1879 amounted to 9,715 dozen of 
eggs. 

CROPS. 

In 1879, the Swedes cut and cured 982 tons of hay. 
They harvested 1,364 bushels of wheat, 5,256 bushels of 
rye, 2,861 bushels of buckwheat and 8,501 bushels of oats ; 
making a total of 17,982 bushels of grain. They raised 
also 25,007 bushels of potatoes, besides thousands of bush- 
els of other roots. 

VALUES. 

The valuation of all the farms in the Swedish 

colony is $ 99,350 

Value of farming implements and machinery - 6,998 

Value of live stock 22,485 



Total value of Swedish farms, tools and stock, $128,838 

The value of the farm product of the entire colony for 
1879, was 124,011. 

And this was raised where not the worth of a dollar was 
produced ten years ago. 

These figures alone are eloquent. They speak for them- 
selves. They tell the story of difficulties surmounted, of 
results accomplished, of work well done. But, my friends, 
those of you who have never lived in the backwoods, can 
have no adequate conception of the vast labor and toil un- 



68 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

clergone on this spot to create the results I have enumer- 
ated, and which you see all around 3-0U. A settler's first 
years in the woods are a continual fight, hand to hand with 
savage nature, for existence. It is pleasant to look out upon 
these broad fields waving with grain, but do we know, can 
we calculate, how many blows of the axe, how many drops 
of sweat have been expended in turning each one of these 
4,400 acres of cleared land from foresr to farm ? 

To-day, New Sweden gives an account of her steward- 
ship, and shows you the results of ten years' hard work — 
results achieved by the never flagging industry, the rigid 
economy, the virtue, faith and hope of our Swedish breth- 
ren. 

To you American visitors — to the State of Maine, these 
Swedes may proudly say, " Si monumentum requieris, cir- 
cumspicey New Sweden stands to-day a monument of 
what cai;i be accomplished on a wilderness township of 
Maine, by strong arms and brave hearts in the short space 
of ten years. And all this is but seed well sown, the har- 
vest is in the future. 

The great obstacle to the growth of New Sweden is the 
fact that the state no longer owns our wild lands. In 
large part, she has squandered them, and the private own- 
ers into whose hands they have fallen are, for the most 
part, rigidly opposed to the settlement of their timber 
townships. Had the state continued to own its lands, the 
neighboring townships to the north and west of us would 
have been settled by Swedes before this, and Aroostook 
county alone, would to-day, number more than 3,000 
Swedes. 

But the lands are here ; the colony is here ; the Swedes 
are coming, and the tide of immigration cannot be turned 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 69 

back. The first hard years of this colony's life are now 
over. The work of the decade has placed New Sweden 
upon vantage-ground. Henceforward, not only its suc- 
cess, but its happiness and comfort are assured. The past 
is secure, the future is plain. 

This Swedish colony will go on and accomplish its mis- 
sion. It will push out into these forests and convert tract 
after tract of our wilderness, into well tilled farms and 
thriving villages. It will continue to draw to all sections 
of our state the best class of immigrants — the countrymen 
of John Eriksson, and the descendants of the vikings, 
and the soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus — and through- 
out the future, it will confer upon Maine those numerous 
and important advantages, which a steadily growing in- 
dustrial population is sure to bestow upon a common- 
wealth. 

The oration occupied over two hours in its deliver}^ yet 
it was listened to by both Swedesand Americans, with un- 
abated interest throughout, and frequently interrupted 
with applause. 

At its conclusion, a hymn was sung by the Swedish 
choir. 

Mr. Thomas then said, — It is our good fortune to 
have with us to-day, one who has achieved renown, 
both as a scholar and a soldier, the man who occupied 
the gubernatorial chair of Maine, when this colony was 
founded, the constant and chivalric friend of this enter- 
prise from its inception ; one, who in fact, stood by and 
rocked the cradle of New Sweden, the gallant General 
Chamberlain. 



70 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The general was warmly greeted as lie advanced to the 
pulpit, and spoke as follows : 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN. 

Members and friends of the colony of Neiv Sivedeii^ — The 
figure of speech under which it has pleased our friend 
to introduce me, you must take for pleasantry and not 
history. I don't know exactly what his meaning is. 
But surely we may be thankful that so many Swedish 
cradles have been rocked ; and I almost wonder that my 
good friend himself has not done something better in that 
way than he has ! 

But his figure of speech, however intended, has brought 
some agreeable and some amusing thoughts to my mind. 
It may be known to some here, that I happened to be Gov- 
ernor at the time the enterprise of establishing a Swedish 
colony in Maine, was brought forward. It is not perhaps 
any better known, that the measure was not carried 
through without some opposition. 

I cannot justly claim the gentle office of nurse, so gra- 
ciously apportioned to me. While this enterprise was be- 
ing matured, I was not sitting in-doors with spectacles and 
knitting, cradle-rocking ; I was outside, taking another 
kind of " rocks." 

Some gentlemen and some papers were pretty soundly 
abusing me for recommending the measure to the Legisla- 
ture, whom I now see with pleasure arraying themselves 
as first and foremost champions of the cause. It puts me 
in good humor, too, to be thought worthy of this good 
company to-day. Some were surprised: "What, are you 
going with us ! " exclaimed one of the honored officials on 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 7^1 

his way to mingle his triumphs with youi^s, as I joined the 
party on the train. 

I rather thought I was going; for, friends, I was not 
going to have my rights of citizenship taken away just 
when yours were being conferred. So I am here with " us." 
But, pleasantry aside, whoever may have been nurse or 
godfather of the enterprise now so happily betokened 
here, the thought of Swedish immigration to Maine had 
no novel nor narrow birth. Many thoughtful citizens had 
lono- revolved in mind the question why Scandinavian mi- 
mig^ration in America should leap so far beyond the sea- 
board, and settle down in so distant regions of the coun- 
try; and one of my predecessors in ofdce, a man of pat- 
riotic and sagacious mind, had brought the subject for- 
mally to the attention of the state. 

But in the eventful years which followed, the matter 
was passed over, and was well-nigh forgotten. I can only 
claim to be guardian of the thought. It was at the close 
of a bloody and costly civil war that this matter engaged 
my attention. Twenty-five thousand of the strength of 
our youth that went forth to the country's defence, had 
perished in the conflict. There were broken ranks all over 
our state-vacant chairs, desolate homes, neglected fields 
wide and rich lands with none to occupy; many too, ot 
our native-born people were carried elsewhere by the cur 
rents of business and trade. Inducements offered to ou 
own people were insufficient to draw them to these fert^^^^^^ 
and beautiful lands. The harvest seemed plenteous, but 

";:rr:^ngsthethoughtrecurred.brh^ 
here the friends from over sea, _ who, bemg of k^r wo^d 
mingle kindly with us in working and livmg. We had 



.72 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

ready here, and made welcome, people of the Celtic race, 
the French and the Irish, to give vivacity and fervor to 
our social character. Now we thought to bring a people 
nearer yet of kin. 

We have a saying, " Blood is thicker than water." You 
may have something like it in Swedish. It means, kinship 
is a strong, natural bond. So we sought our cousins from 
over sea to fill the place of our sons. The water was not 
so wide but that the blood should bring us together. 

For we are of one blood, friends, and but little removed 
from each other in traits and temper, though you have • 
kept nearer to the original stock. The same may be said 
of language. Of our two forms of speech the soul is the 
same and the features too, if not the flesh. Word answer- 
ing to word, as the face of a friend. Habits of life and 
work are alike with us. You have the snows and the 
forests, the fields and the rivers, the lakes and the sea. 
What you know well how to do, you can do here. What- 
ever we do that is well, 5^ou can do. 

In ideas and sympathies also our minds flow in one 
stream. You comprehend our principles, your hearts beat 
toward the same ideal ends, you enter naturally into our 
institutions, and take hold with us heartily in carrying 
forward all noble works which it is man's duty and glory 
on earth to achieve. 

Thoughts like these, running on before, drew us to 
you, and I trust drew you to us. 

Happily, and indeed as a singular good omen, we were 
able to avail ourselves of the rare qualifications and indis- 
pensable services of my good friend whom you call 
" Consul Thomas," putting more affection into that word, I 
know, than it has often borne before, — who had just come 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 73 

home from you, full of heart aud full of vigor, and who 
from the first moment until now has given both to this en- 
terprise now so worthily crowned. 

He was a good man to send for you. I don't wonder 
that you followed him and that you love him. Why, he 
looks like a Swede ! I leave it to you if he does not. The 
very breezes that stir the tree-tops of Norrland seem to 
play across his features as he smiles back upon you now. 

I know him for a viking too, sweeping our coast with 
his foragers and his gleemen. He must be a Scandinavi- 
an. His honored father beside him here knows more about 
it than I do — descended, it is easy to see, from I know not 
what sea-king or king of men ! 

But another man I must not pass by, — and must even 
name him, as he is not here, — who you must grant me was 
a good man to meet you. I mean Mr. Burleigh, — as good 
an American as Mr. Thomas is Swede, — a man of firm 
mold, who, when he has set his hand to a thing does not 
go back till it is done. 

And here you are now, settled and firm in your new 
home ! I rejoice with you in it. You have brought with 
you what makes home and makes for heaven — these 
women, honored and blessed in both lands and bringing 
honor and blessing now to this. You have brought what 
makes a community and a people strong. With your 
workers, and of them indeed, you have your pastor, your 
teacher, your magistrate, your soldier. For I took notice 
of that too, as I am bound and prone to do. Your young 
soldiers here, with their leader, who has the born soldier 
in him, they speak of serious things, of needful things 
sometimes. God grant we be not called to that lesson too 
soon again ! 



74 DECEKNIAL CELEBRATIOX. 

As I speak I catch sight of those two flags by the en- 
trance which the winds now set waving, and in the vista 
they seem to wreathe and blend together, the Swedish and 
the American flags, that were never set against each other 
in mortal strife, and which now bringing here all their 
rich and stirring historic associations, smile on us with 
peace and good-will to men. 

We welcome your flag, your history and yourselves. It 
will do us good to take into the life-blood of the Republic 
something of the spirit of Gustaf Vasa, Gustavus Adol- 
phus, Charles the XII, and Oxenstjerna and Ericsson, and 
the sweetness of Tegn^r and Jenny Lind. 

And it will do you good to come here where you can 
work out freely your best work and your best thought. 
Hereafter we are one. All that is ours is yours. All that 
is open to us of light and liberty and truth, and the tri- 
umph of right ; all that is noble in duty, and high in station, 
and great in achievement, is open to you. 

Your children and our children shall walk that onward, 
upward way together, now, henceforth, forever. 

And so again I bid you greeting and good-bye. 

Gen. Chamberlain's admirable remarks were received 
with profound attention. 

At their close, the president said, — While Gen. Chamber- 
lain, in the executive chamber, by his model state papers 
and efficient action, rocked one side of the cradle of New 
Sweden, there was another man, who, standing up in the 
house of representatives, by his eloquent speech, rocked the 
other side of this Swedish cradle. That man is Col. James 
M. Stone, of Kennebunk, whom I now introduce to you. 

Col. Stone spoke as follows : 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. '^^ 

ADDRESS OF COL. JA^IES M. STONE, OF KENNEBUNK. 

3fr. Chairman,— This decennial celebration, here in the 
woods of northern Aroostook to-day, vividly recalls to 
my mind, the inception of this grand enterprise, by the 
action of the legislature of our state, in the year 1870. 
It wa^ my friend Mr. Thomas, who has jnst now so elo- 
qnently addressed us, who first, in a private conversa- 
tion, called my attention to the subject of Scandinavian 
immigration into the state; and I well remember the 
interest which the presentation of that subject awaken- 
ed in me. It was at a time of great commercial and 
financial depression. Many of our leading citizens, I 
well remember, were leaving the state, and turning their 
faces and footsteps toward the virgin lands of the 
west. Something I felt should be done, or attempted, it 
possible, if not to arrest this western movement, at least 
to counter-balance it; and I promised my friend, as a mem- 
ber of the house, that I would carefully consider the sub- 
ject. I knew too, that this measure had been most earn- 
estly and ably urged uponthe state, by both Gov. Wash- 
burn and Gen. Chamberlain. 

A committee on Scandinavian immigration was appomt- 
ed by the legislature of that year, of which I had the hon- 
or to be appointed chairman on the part of the hoase. 
The subject was very carefully and fully investigated by 
that committee, and a bill in favor of the measure reported, 
which it devolved on me to present and support. 

The first thing, sir, for one to do who would satisfy oth- 
ers by speech, is to convince himself. This I ---- ^^ - 
doing, and it was for this reason, I suppose, that I satisfied 

the house. , . . ^ £^^ 

For without egotism, I think I may claim this much for 



76 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

myself. Indeed, 1 doubt if there were in both branches of 
the legislature, a dozen members, who were in favor of the 
measure when it was first presented for discussion. Many 
of the leading members were, I know, opposed to it. The 
bill proposed a new policy for the state, in relation to the 
public lands, if the course hitherto pursued can be called a 
policy, that of preserving them for settlement, and of at- 
tempting to induce immigrants to occupy them. We had 
been giving these lands away in the past, with a lavish 
hand, both to individuals and to corporations, and in the 
year 1864, we had given to a single railroad corporation, 
735,943 acres of land, at once, and without discussion or a 
division of the house — almost territory enough across the 
water to constitute a empire. 

It was for the interest of private parties and of corpo- 
rations holding these lands, to preserve them as they were 
for wood and timber, and thus withhold them from settle- 
ment ; it was for the interest of the state to open them to 
immigrants. There was thus opposed in interest to this 
measure, not only many individuals and corporations hold- 
ing wood and timber lands in the state, but also, all that 
class of men who were casting their eager and expectant 
eyes on what yet remained, as well as the many every- 
where to be found, slow to learn and believe in anything 
new. 

And yet, sir, so strong were the reasons in favor of this 
measure, that when the discussion was finished, there were 
but three votes in the house, I think, in opposition to it. 
I shall not detain you by attempting to recapitulate the 
results already accomplished in a single decade. What I 
saw, nay, much more than what I saw, by the eye of faith, 
and afar off, is before me in these woods of northern Maine 



FOUNDING OF NE"S\' SWEDEN. 77 

to-day. I can only say that I am most happy to be pres- 
ent here, and to participate in these festivities, and to wit- 
ness and wonder at this developement and this prosperity ; 
that I reflect with pleasure on the humble part I bore in 
the inception of this enterprise ; that I most heartily con- 
gratulate the state, not only on the results already accom- 
plished, but also, on the larger promise of ampler and more 
glorious fruitage in the future. 

Music by the band followed. 

The president said, — There is an honored gentleman pres- 
ent, whom I would point out to the Swedish lads as an ex- 
ample of what they may become by courage and industry, 
one who, by his own strong arm and stout heart has worked 
his way up from a farmer's boy to the Vice-presidency of 
this great Republic — the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

Mr. Hamlin said : 



ADDRESS OF HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, UNITED 
STATES SENATOR. 

I have come up here, Mr. Chairman, to testify by my 
presence the interest I feel, and have always felt, in this 
colony. 

More than two hundred years ago Deane Swift said that 
he is a public benefactor who makes two blades of grass 
grow where but one grew before. But what praise shall 
be awarded to him who enters the unbroken forests and 
makes fields smile with beauty, creating wealth, which, 
but for his hands, would never have existed. 

Every inhabitant of the state is worth one thousand 
dollars to the commonwealth in the value of his produc- 



I 



78 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

tions, and each of you who are subduing the forest is 
"vyorth more than that to jNIaine. 

We welcome you, not only as tillers of the soil, but we 
invite you, as friends and as equals, to a participation with 
us in our system of government. 

Undoubtedly, geograjjliical position and climate have 
much to do in forming the character of a people. Moun- 
tainous countries produce heroes ; where the mountains 
point to heaven, there the lovers of freedom have alwaj^s 
dwelt. 

The men of Northern Europe are braver and more 
hardy than those born under the smiling sky of Italy. For 
a thousand years the Scandinavians have a noble history, 
and we knew that in the Scandinavian peninsula we should 
find a people who would more readily assimilate with our 
institutions than the citizens of sunnier climes. 

The countrymen of St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus and 
Charles XII, have much in common with the countrymen 
of Washington, and we invite you to partake with us of 
our advantages. We hold out our arms and bid you 
welcome to the broad acres of our beloved state. 

The orator of the day has said you could drop down the 
whole of Massachusetts and its people into the lap of 
Aroostook, and you would hear no sign. I would qualify 
that somewhat. I think that some of those nice Massa- 
chusetts people, who believe in Immaculate Conception, 
would grumble at nature, and find fault because they did 
not have a hand in making the world. 

My Swedish countrymen, when I see what has been 
done by Scandinavian labor up here in this remote cor- 
ner of my native state, I rejoice to welcome you. 

I know, too, if ever a conflict arises here, that the land 



f 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 79 

of Charles XII will furnish its descendants for the defence 
of liberty in the New World. 

The eloquent speech of Senator Hamlin was loudly ap- 
plauded. 

The choir then sang " America," 

"My countiy 'tis of thee, 
\ Sweet land of liberty." 

It is the National air of Sweden as well as of the United 
States. The audience all rose, and Swedes and Ameri- 
cans, each in their own language, but to the same music, 
sang their national anthem. 

As the sweet volume of sound arose and floated out 
over the summer fields, one could not but deeply realize 
that God has made of one blood all nations of the earth. 

Capt. Charles A. Boutelle was called upon to speak in 
behalf of the Press of Maine. 
Mr. Boutelle said : 

ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN CHARLES A. BOUTELLE, EDITOR 
OF THE BANGOR WHIG AND COURIER. 
3Ir. Chairman and friends of New Sweden,— I am very 
glad to be able to participate with you in this decennial 
anniversary celebration of the foundation of your col- 
ony, and have been much impressed by the interesting 
exercises, and by the evidences of the intelligence, 
thrift and progress of this community. As a journalist, it 
has been my duty to take note of this public enterprise 
from its inception, and it has also been a pleasure to offer 



80 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

words of encouragement and cheer to those who were 
seeking to build up happy homes on the virgin soil of 
our state. 

I am glad to see for myself, the success which has been 
achieved, and to join in welcoming to the fraternity of fel- 
low-citizenship, so industrious and excellent a people. The 
state of Maine cannot regret that it invited to our shores 
these worthy men and women who have made the wilder- 
ness to blossom, and I congratulate them upon becoming 
entitled to all the benefits and blessings of the freest and 
best government on the earth. 

Rev. Daniel Stickney, of Presque Isle, was then called 
upon as the chronicler of New Sweden. 

Mr. Stickney facetiously remarked that he never knew 
Mr. Thomas to make but one mistake, and that was when 
he called upon him to make a speech. So to save that 
gentleman from mortification, he would respectfully de- 
cline to utter a word. 

At this point, the president, looking through the open 
door-way, caught sight of Mr. Barker standing outside, 
and called his name. Everyone inside the church and out 
caught up the refrain, and shouted Barker, Barker. 

There was no resisting such a tide of invitation, and 
that gentleman pressed his way through the crowd up the 
aisle to the pulpit, and said : 

ADDRESS OF HON. LEWIS BARKER, OF THE 
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 

I did not mean to speak here. It is not fair for your 
chairman, Mr. Thomas, to ask me to speak here. My ov- 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 81 

ercoat is on my back, my hat in one hand, my whip in the 
other, my horse is at the door, and my wife is out there in 
the carriage waiting for me. Is it fair to catch me this way ? 

And yet, and yet, who can resist Thomas ? especially 
amid these surroundings, which, but for him, had never 
been. 

And now, once on my feet, what shall I say fitting this 
occasion. 

One who was as dear to me as the ruddy drops of blood 
which warm my heart once wrote : 

" Had I this tough old world to rule, 
My cannon, sword and mallet 
Should be the dear old district school, 
God's Bible and the ballot." 

As I drove into this charming new town of yours to-day, 
while every log-house, and barn and hovel indicated a 
brave beginning in your municipal life, the one thing that 
gladdened me above all signs of industry, economy and 
material prosperity, was the little red school-house by the 
roadside. When I saw that, I said to myself, " you are all 
right up here in your little Scandinavia." It shew me 
that you would easily melt into our New England civiliza- 
tion — that you would be no measles in our blood. And 
my thought was strengthened when I reached this humble 
house of God, where the Bible lies open on the altar. 

Free schools and the open Bible you have. Two of that 
brother's agencies I have met here, and with these in ac- 
tive play, I have no fears for the third — the ballot. Thank 
God you are beginning to know the value of the ballot. 
It is as holy as your Bible ; it is as sacred as a soldier's 
grave. 

6 



82 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Mr. Scandinavian, up here in your ultima thule, this 
little piece of paper is the telephone which placed to your 
lips shall speak your will at the national capitol. 

And, should ignorance, or barbarism, or crime, ever 
again attempt to dismember this republic, of which you 
have now become a part, your military organization, which 
I have seen to-day, shows that you will be ready to respond 
to that brother's other suggestion, 

" If Bible, ballot, and the school 

Should fail me all in turn, then let 
Me have, instead of rabble rule, 

The EDUCATED BAYONET ! " 

Especially if j^ou can have such a leader as he who 
graces this occasion by his presence, our own blue-eyed 
boy of the Penobscot, who, when the hour of peril came 
to the Republic, left his college _halls, and led an intelli- 
gent citizen soldiery through many a bloody field, till at 
last, mid the whizzing of shot and the screaming of shell he 
turned the tide of battle at " Little Round Top." 

But we are not to have recourse to the bayonet while 
we have a ballot free to all. 

The doctrine of excluding any race or class from the 
ballot is abhorrent to me. I have but one rule. Show 
me the man that God did not make, and for whom Christ 
did not die, and from him I will consent to take the ballot. 

Armed with the ballot, the humblest man amongst you, 
clad in his homespun, is the peer of our vice-president 
you have heard to-day — the equal of the mightiest in the 
land. It is the Magna Charta of your liberties. 

So I bid you welcome to my native land. I give the 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 83 

same welcome to all peoples and all nationalities. I invite 
all to this splendid figlit of life, with equal chances for all. 

" Equal voice in making laws; 
Equal peers to try each cause; 
Peasant's liomestead, mean and small, 
Sacred as tlie monarch's hall!" 

And now regretting only that my picture cannot hang 

■ upon the walls of this church by the side of the portrait 

of Mr. Thomas, and that my name cannot go down with 

your history like his, I forgive him the wrong he has 

done me, and bid you goodbye. 

No report can do justice to the impromptu speech of 
Mr. Barker. Its effect was electrical. It was received 
with the greatest applause and enthusiasm. Several min- 
utes elapsed before silence was restored. 

Col. Frederic Robie was then called upon, and spoke in 
substance as follows : 

ADDRESS OF HON. FREDERIC ROBIE OF THE 
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 

The lateness of the hour, after the completion of so sat- 
isfactory a programme, which has already demonstrated 
the importance and interest of this occasion, furnishes no 
desire on my part to proceed, or perhaps inclination on the 
part of this large audience to continue the exercises by 
further remarks. I must say that I am delighted with 
what I have seen, and exceedingly interested m what 1 
have heard. The town of Gorham, where I was born and 



84 DECENNIAL CELEBEATION. 

now reside, one hundred and forty years ago was a fron- 
tier town. The early written history of that town recalls 
to my mind the privations and difficulties which then sur- 
rounded the commencement and slow progress of a new 
settlement. The dangers from the savage Indian, the fear 
of famine, the entire absence of the church and school- 
house, and in lieu thereof the fort, and the deprivation of 
all of the substantial enjoyments of social and civil life, 
were the experiences of our ancestors. What a contrast 
when compared with the speedy development of this pros- 
perous settlement — very little, if any progress was then 
made during a period of ten years. 

A like comparison of the settlement of this township 
with the early days of any of the older towns in Maine, 
furnishes an interesting lesson for our contemplation. The 
result shows a marked difference in what can now be done 
in ten years, in comparison with early times, as seen in 
these neat and comfortable cottages, and the extended and 
fertile clearings of New Sweden, now luxuriant with grain 
and other farm productions. Such a comparison measures 
the march of civilization. It seems to me that our early 
ancestors should be particularly remembered on an occa- 
sion like this, and as the descendants of a hardy and wor- 
thy race of agricultural laborers, we especially welcome 
to our state the honest Swede, the true representative of 
that type of character which early gave the district of 
Maine a name for virtue and intelligence. There must be 
an end, and I feel that we are anxiously waiting for the 
sound of the horn for dinner, but I cannot close without 
thanking the distinguished orator of the day for his ap- 
propriate and very interesting address, and this generous 
people for their hospitable entertainment. 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 



85 



John Borgesoii, the first school supervisor of New Swe- 
den, next returned the thanks of the Swedes for the pres- 
ence and kind words of their American guests. 

The exercises at the church then closed with music by 
the band. 

The line of march was now taken up to the capitol. 

In the hall overhead a sumptuous collation was served 
by the ladies of the colony. 

Divine blessing was invoked, after the Swedish custom, 
by a little girl nine years old, Elizabeth White Goddard 
Thomas Clase, named for the mother of the founder 
of the colony, and baptized in the presence of Gov. 
Perham, on the occasion of his first visit to New Sweden 

in 1871. 

The tables were loaded down with good things, m the 
greatest profusion, and every one was sumptuously en- 
tertained. 

Late in the afternoon, as the declining sun of this hap- 
py day illumined with his level rays our little sanctuary 
in the forest, the First Swedish Lutheran church of Mame 
was dedicated, with appropriate ceremonies, to the service 
of Almighty God. 

The church is 30x40 feet on the ground, 20 feet stud, 
with a steeple rising to the height of 80 feet. The inte- 
rior of the church is prettily tinted and frescoed by a Swe- 
dish painter. To the left of the pulpit, on a raised plat- 
form, is an organ, the gift of Hon. William Widgery 
Thomas senior, of Portland. 



86 DECENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The church bell bears the following inscription written 
by pastor Wiren : 

PRESENTED 

TO THE 

FIRST SWEDISH EV. LUTH. CHURCH OF MAINE, 

BY 

WILLIAM W. THOMAS JR., 

THE FOUNDER OF NEW SWEDEN. 

COLONY FOUNDED JULY 23, 1870, 

CHURCH DEDICATED JULY 23, 1880. 

More than three hundred and fifty years ago a sturdy 
priest, Martin Luther, posted up ninety-five theses on the 
doors of the church at Wittenberg. 

To-day, founded on these very theses, a church is dedi- 
cated, in the forests of another continent, four thousand 
miles away. 

" How far that little candle throws his beams." 



FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN. 



87 



The following lines, written by one of the guests at the 
Swedish Decennial, were inspired by the forests and fields 
of New Sweden. 

THE FLOWERS OF AROOSTOOK. 

BY MKS. H. G. BOWE. 

Daisies and buttercups, sweet purple clover, 

Starring your meadows, so blithesome and gay. 
Proclaim to our vision, in voices prophetic: 
"The darkness primeval is passing away !" 

Yet down by the streams where the forest still lingers, 
The clematis wild its white fingers doth lave. 

And the harebell bows low, like some shy forest maiden, 
To watch her fair face in the clear flowing wave. 

Close, close on the track of the fire in the clearing. 
Spring rosy-hued blossoms, perfuming the air; 

And the honey bee sucks from the buckwheat's white bosom 
On the spot where the wild beast once crouched in his lair. 

Dumb Nature awakes at the voice of her master. 
To his God-given rule her proud forehead she bends, 

While the ring of the axe, and the clang of the hammer, 
Like a pgean of praise to high heaven ascends. 

Ring out, bonny blossoms, bright daughters of labor. 

Let your glad faces brighten Aroostook's rich soil, 
Sing ever " God-speed to the axe and the plow-share, 

All blessing and praise to the children of toil ! " 



X^'~ 



